Kestrel and Widowbird
by Aescela
Summary: Garrett/Erin. After the events on the Dawn's Light, Garrett returns to the city, frustrated and confused about Erin's disappearance. His life as Thief goes on, but one day, their paths cross again: Erin returns, injured and sick, and since Garrett was not able to help her the last time, he sees a chance to make up for his mistake...
1. Chapter 1 - Foundling

**Chapter 1 – Foundling**

The satisfying _click_ drew his attention away from the hulking man who was fast asleep on a chair next to him, his crossbow on his lap. While fumbling around in the lock, he had relied on his sensitive fingertips, feeling the right spots for setting the pins, keeping his eyes on the snoring guard barely two steps next to the safe in the wall. Carefully, he opened the safe, and there it was, House Casterling's famous heirloom, glittering blue and green with large sapphires and emeralds like the sea on a sunny day.

 _If the sea right behind the City's harbor was blue and green, that is, and not mud-brown_ , he thought.

The slender, black-clad man lifted the magnificent tiara gently from its velvet cushion, turned it a little to admire its beauty and let is disappear in a leather pocket. He closed the safe again, stood up and took a moment to relish the sight of the sleeping guard, standing barely a foot away from him. The man in leather bent down, now a silvery scalpel in his hand, sharp as a razor, and casually drew the blade across the guard's broad chest. A gilded badge dropped into a waiting hand. The guard snored.

Garrett bowed elegantly before his generous donor, turned on his heel and vanished through the window into the night.

The black sky slowly turned an inky blue, and a yellow tint was to be seen on the eastern horizon while the heavy rainclouds travelled on into the south. While the Thief weaved his way across the wet rooftops between wooden beams and chimneys like a stalking cat, he peeked down into the alleys from time to time. The raging fires of the Craven Revolution a few weeks past had left large districts of the City in smoldering ruins, but reconstruction was in full progress. The Gloom seemed to have stopped infecting new victims, and the existing ones were either dead or in a state of recovery. Townsfolk that had fled the City during the days of the crisis returned to their households, ships and carts of traders arrived again, shops were reopened. Technically a good development, Garrett mused. _More people mean more to steal_. On the other hand, the succession of the Baron was not clear yet, and he could only imagine the political squabble between the nobles and aristocrats going on behind the walls of Northcrest Manor right now. To be fair, he didn't really care. Whoever the successor was going to be, he would very unlikely be as insane as the old Baron and his dear little brother Orion, and rich enough to pay him a visit or two in any case.

Garrett, without stopping in his stride, took out his bow and shot a rope arrow into a beam above him, jumped and grabbed the rope to swing to the other side of the alley, taking a shortcut. His life went on as it had been for as long as he could think, as if nothing had happened a few weeks ago. Basso, Ector and a bunch of fences, dealers and other shady figures paid him to steal things, and he went about and did so, sticking to the shadows like he always had. Still, he often dreamed of the _Dawn's Light_ , the ship on which he had lost Erin. Again.

The memory made him knit his brow, as always. Erin dangling above the abyss, only held by his hand, begging him to pull her up, slipping… The way this resembled the day when Erin fell in the vortex of Primal energy was almost ridiculous. _History repeats itself_ , the Queen of Beggars would say. But this time, Garrett had managed to throw her the claw, had changed the outcome, changed the way of events. The more confused he was about her disappearance. He had seen the claw next to him. Apparently, Erin had made it to pull herself up, and according to her wet footprints close to him, she had survived, leaving his unconscious body behind. Why did Erin just leave? Was she angry? Determined to make a new start and forget everything she ever had to do with the City?

If so, Garrett could not blame her for it. The cruelties she had lived through could break any man. Judging by the way she had suffered, it was a miracle she had survived. He could also imagine that she was disappointed by him. Garrett hoped that Erin was alright, wherever she was, but still he _regretted_. He felt sorry for every harm that had come to her. For what he had done, what he had allowed to happen by stealing her claw and leaving her in the hands of those madmen for over a year.

He pined for a possibility to explain himself, to set his restless mind at ease. There was so much he wanted to sort out. After that he would be able to let her go, if she wished to do so.

But Erin was gone, Garrett was back in his place, and he had a job to do.

 _Focus on your job._

Pondering about this over and over again meant distraction, and distraction meant a crossbow bolt in his back. Garrett was not keen on that. He continued his way to Stonemarket to meet with Basso and deliver House Casterlings' tiara. A pity, he really would like to see it in his collection. But business was business. The Thief jumped over a gap between two buildings, grabbed a beam on the other side, swung himself over and landed smoothly in a cobblestone alleyway that would bring him to his destination. The shadow of the old clocktower loomed above him, a dark pinnacle against the sky that slowly turned the color of amber, the rainclouds vanishing. The heavy steps of guards made Garrett flinch, and he quickly slipped into a murky side street, pressing against the damp wall.

The guards, a man with a crossbow and a long feather on his hat and a sturdier fellow with a sword, patrolled by him without noticing the Thief's glowing blue eye. Even though the Primal powers were at balance again, or something similar annoyingly vague and mystical the Queen of Beggars had mentioned, Garrett's focus vision still worked. He didn't mind.

As the guards were gone, Garrett counted to ten under his breath, flexing his nimble fingers like a pianist doing a warm-up before his great overture. He got ready to keep going, already focusing on the ladder just across the road, ready to climb up quickly and unseen and continue his way towards…

" _Garrett_."

He almost jumped out of his armor. A quiet, quavering voice had called his name, barely a whisper, so softly he wasn't sure whether it was a trick of his own mind.

Slowly, cowered and ready to flee at any sign of danger, Garrett turned around, away from where the side street opened into the road and towards the darkness further in. He strained his eyes, but he couldn't see anything.

Opening his inner eye, the focus vision, he prowled into the darkness. There, at the end of the side street, on the wet cobblestones, lay a figure hulled in a dirty white mess of cloth, like a cluster of autumn leaves with a layer of frost on them. Garrett blinked. Either this was a dream or all his useless pondering had driven him mad.

Refusing to believe his eyes, Garrett bent over the bundle, which turned out to be a woman, just like expected, lying face down on the ground. Part of him didn't want to see her face, as there was still a tiny chance that this was not who he desperately hoped to be, but when he touched her thin wrists and felt how cold they were, he knew he had no choice if he didn't want to let her die.

He carefully turned the woman around.

It was Erin.

Garrett sighed deeply with relief, releasing the breath he had been holding for way too long. A heartbeat later, after checking her quickly for injuries, he was shocked by how cold she was. She was breathing, her chest rising slowly every now and then, but she was soaking wet and dripping with rain. Her slender, elegant limbs were covered with bruises and scratches, as far he could judge by what he could see under the dress. Her skin was pale like milk, her lips blue. Her eyes were closed.

"Erin…", Garrett whispered, lifting her into his arms. She didn't react. Whatever had happened to her, it seemed to have left her with just enough energy to drag herself back in the City to look for him, and now she was completely spent.

 _No time to lose._

His job forgotten, Garrett carried his load out of the side street, throwing quick glances left and right as he skittered towards his clocktower on soft, leather-padded feet. He briefly thought about bringing Erin to a doctor, but then remembered that the actual doctors had left the City when the Gloom went hopeless and the doctors that stayed were people that found it amusing to cut corpses in bits, so he dropped that idea.

Finally arriving at the market place at the foot of the tower, after having dodged a few sleepy patrols, Garrett somehow managed to carry her up to the secret entrance of the tower, the limp and lifeless Erin draped across his shoulder. He was out of his breath and his lungs felt like they were bursting when he was done climbing the countless stairs with his load.

 _Well, now what? I can't really recall ever having had a guest in here_ …, Garrett thought after reaching his apartment in the clockwork. He stood there a little lost with Erin in his arms, a grotesque parody of a newly-wed couple with her torn and formerly-white ceremonial dress and his black leather armor. Shaking his head at the absurdity, he eventually placed her on his own (and only) bed and pushed an iron fire basket right next to her. With one fluid motion, he drew his bow, nocked a fire arrow and sent it into the dry wood that immediately burst into flames. An aura of warmth radiated from the basket. He assumed getting her warm again would be the most important thing at the moment. Technically, getting rid of that damn wet ceremonial dress also seemed like a good thing to do, but since it was the only thing that prevented Erin from being naked, Garrett dropped that idea, slightly embarrassed by his own thoughts. Instead, he went upstairs, produced a more or less clean rag and returned to Erin to at least remove some of the dirt and dried blood from her feet, and, after short hesitation, from her sleek legs up to her knees. After that, he did the same for the arms, hands and slender neck. Tilting his head, he cupped Erin's face in his hands, ran them along her jaw line and cheekbones and took a close look at her features, gently combed his sensitive fingertips through her messy, short hair to feel for any injuries on her head. Though being wet and uncombed, her hair was soft, soft and pitch black like the plumes of a raven. Something deep inside him knotted when he saw her like this. It was part his fault. Garrett used his fingers to brush her hair from her damp forehead. Finally, he draped his warmest blanket over her, decided that it wasn't enough and added a second one.

Then he ran out of ideas, sat down on the edge of the bed and waited.

Outside, Garrett could hear the City's birds awakening, crows and pigeons and magpies, cawing and cooing. The crows that slept between the gears and rods of the clocktower woke up too, cawed and screamed and went for the window. Garrett yawned. It was almost six in the morning.

"Erin?" He grabbed her shoulder and shook her very gently. She didn't react, but Garrett's stomach did.

 _I should get some food. There really isn't anything else I can do as long as she sleeps_ , he thought to himself. The only storage food he had left was dried meat, and he was tired of dried meat. Probably not the kind of food that someone as spent as her needed anyway. Garrett wrapped half of his stock in three portions in linen napkins, placed another log in the fire and made his way out of the clocktower. He was lucky; some households were already starting to fire the hearths, with smoke curling out of the chimneys. Concerning the poor state the City was in still, a smart Thief would only steal things the townsfolk could not eat, and if he did he exchanged it against something else. Technically, this went a bit against his usual credo of never leaving any trace, but if the cooks died nobody would be there to cook for him, and he really didn't want to rely on raw fish from the harbor or roasted rats.

Garrett slipped through a kitchen window that belonged to a rich tradesman's manor. A portly woman with a bonnet and an apron, most probably a maid, rummaged around in a box in the opposite room. She didn't hear the Thief entering on soft soles, didn't hear him carefully pluck a bag from a shelf and casually filling it with some green apples, pears and carrots. Garrett left one of his dried meat rations in a corner and got ready to go again when he noticed a silvery glimmer on the maid.

Unable to resist, he prowled towards her and took a closer look. A magnificent silver cooking ladle peeked out from behind the knotted band that held the maid's apron in place, stuck there for later use. Garrett straightened from his crouched stance, standing behind her as she kept sorting through a box on the floor, oblivious to the man who kept staring on the precious ladle tied to her rear. Garrett carefully stretched out a hand, but pulled it back immediately, afraid the maid might feel his touch, taking into account the way her ample backside wiggled left and right. Frowning, Garrett tried again and almost got his fingers on a place he wouldn't prefer them to end up as the maid turned abruptly. Garrett made a silent step to the side and ducked out of her line of vision. The maid waddled towards the hearth with the Thief following closely behind. After two more failed trials to steal the ladle without getting in touch with her wide rear, Garrett sighed inaudibly, grabbed a nut from a basket and tossed it behind the maid. Alerted by the sound, she turned, bent down to pick up the nut and finally Garrett dared to make a grab. The maid seemed to have felt _something_ fumbling on her backside, as she jumped up with a shriek, blushed and turned her head like a startled hen, but Garrett was long gone and the ladle with him.

The next raids were much less complicated. Garrett picked up a loaf of pretty freshly baked bread and a small kettle of broth, leaving his spare dried meat behind in exchange. Carefully balancing the kettle and his bag of food, he went up the clocktower again while the sun rose above the City.

 _Just in time._

He quickly checked Erin's state just to find her still sleeping deeply. Gently shaking her didn't help either, so he just placed the food on a table that was not covered in newspapers and tools and made himself some breakfast. As he thoughtfully chewed a chunk of bread, leaning against the wooden railing and watching Erin, Garrett decided to try and make her drink at least a little bit of water. He soon found out that he was quite bad at balancing a bowl of rainwater, a spoon and Erin's head at the same time while carefully tilting everything in an angle that hopefully allowed some drops of water run down her throat, but most it did was get the bed wet.

"Good thing I chose to be a Thief instead of a nurse…", he murmured as he brushed his thumb along her chin to clean up the mess he made.

Garrett really hoped she would wake up soon. He hoped she would wake up at all, as a start, and that his clumsy care didn't make it worse. There was so much to talk about. Thinking about this made him nervous.

Since he couldn't find anything else to do and staying awake only made his already racing mind even more uneasy, Garrett unlaced his leather armor bit by bit and tidily piled his gear on a shelf, placing his weapons and equipment next to it. Dressed only in black linen smallclothes and a thin shirt, he pulled a spare blanket and a pillow from the bed and lay down on the floor on the other side of the fire basket. The air outside had been frosty, and even though the sun was rising it was going to be a chilly day. Feeling the strains of the night take their toll, he drifted away.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Scent of Rain

A/N: This is the chapter that suddenly turned this whole thing into an M rating. Whoopsies. Brace yourselves, enjoy reading and let me know what you think!

* * *

 **Chapter 2 – The scent of rain**

He was walking in a corridor of old, mossy stone, dark as night, only illuminated by poppy flowers that glowed ghostly blue and white, eerie sounds erupting from the shadows.

Garrett sighed. Not _that_ dream again.

There were nights (or, in his case, days, since he mostly slept during the daytime) in which he was not aware that he was dreaming, and days in which he knew that nothing of this was real, only memories running loose in his head.

The dreams of the first kind were the nasty ones. Often Garrett was forced to relive the accident, the freaks in the asylum, the ambush of the Thief Taker General and Erin's drop over and over again, and he was damn sure that it would keep going like this for quite a while. Now, he knew that the corridor and the poppy were just a dream, and usually he woke up when he just stayed where he was, so he did.

A voice was calling him.

"Garrett…"

Garrett was not able to shut his eyes in the dream, feeling blurry and uncomfortable, but still tried to ignore the voice.

 _This is not real._

"Garrett, please…"

 _No._

"Garret, I'm freezing…"

 _No… What?_

"It's so cold…"

The voice suddenly didn't sound dream-like at all.

With a gasp, he sat up, blinking the ghostly images of glowing poppy away. There he was, back in his clocktower, with thin rays of faint orange light gleaming through the windows. The fire basket had gone out, Garrett realized slowly, and the sun was setting again. Apparently he had slept all day, and now the day's chill made way for a night full of ice flowers and frost-covered cobblestones.

Turning his head drowsily, he spotted a figure sitting on the edge of his bed, shivering like a leaf.

"Garrett, I'm so cold…", Erin whispered again.

Garrett jumped up and went over to her. "Erin! Are you alright?", he asked her.

"I'm freezing…", she replied weakly, her arms wrapped tightly around her slender frame. She was conscious again, but looked miserable, her shallow breath leaving puffs of white mist. Her large, blue eyes were shrouded and tiny sweat beads ran down her temples. Garrett decided that it might be not the perfect moment to ask her about why she had left and what she had been through to get herself in such a bad state, so he just hurried to get the fire in the basket going again. He also felt the chill, his hands being stiff and less agile than usually. Then he gently pushed Erin back in a lying position and draped the blanket over her. When he touched her forehead, he found it to be the only part of her that wasn't cold. It was glowing with fever. Garrett hurried to tuck her in.

"Think that's better?", he asked.

Between two shuddering breaths, she managed to shake her head.

"Well… I'm afraid I'm out of fireplaces", Garrett came back sarcastically. It was pretty obvious what he could do to warm her up further, and he knew it, but still he hesitated. He watched Erin quiver for another moment before he couldn't bear the sight any longer, lifted the blanket and crawled in the bed next to her to give her some of his own warmth. Cautiously, he pressed himself against her body so that both of them lay on their side with him behind her. When Garrett reached over to arrange the blanket, he brushed her hand with his fingers, shocked once more about how lifeless they were. Casting his arm across Erin, he gently kneaded her delicate fingers and palms to get the blood running, doing the same for her other hand after a while.

It might probably have been quite an alluring way of spending the night, if Erin hadn't been that cold. It felt like snuggling up against a corpse that was constantly shivering. At least, by the way her breathing got more regular, Garrett could tell that she had fallen asleep again. Which he hoped was a good thing.

While he had tried to teach Erin the art of Thievery, she had barely spent any time in the clocktower, and if so, never stayed for a sleepover. Likewise, Garrett had never visited her mill until the time after the accident, when he was looking for clues of her location. And now they shared a bed with Erin looking like an icicle and Garrett hoping she would soon get well again. Trying the best he could to not get too confused about the absurdity of the situation he was in right now, he forced himself to sleep. When he laid his head down on the pillow, he was awkwardly close to Erin's hair. He tried to ignore it, until something made him frown.

Garrett carefully leaned closer to the back of her head and inhaled.

She didn't have her natural scent any more.

She smelled like rain.

"How long have you been wandering around out there in nothing but that thin dress?", Garrett murmured quietly, squeezing her hand.

As he got no answer, he rested his head on the pillow and surrendered to sleep once more, nestling closer to Erin's body, feeling some warmth returning to her.

* * *

The next morning, Garrett was woken by the bells of the clocktower and the cawing of the crows. He felt something pressing against his back, lifted his head and peeked back over his shoulder to see Erin lying on her belly close to him. Carefully, he climbed over her without making the bed shake too much, stepped forward to the fire basket and started to light a fire.

"Garrett…"

When he turned and saw that Erin lifted her head from the pillow and blinked at him with drowsy blue eyes, his heart made a jump.

"Mornin'", he replied, trying to hide his excitement about her recovery. "Feeling better?"

Erin groaned softly. Garrett stretched out a hand and touched her shoulders and her arms. They still felt not that warm, but at least no longer cold as a corpse. Her forehead was alarmingly hot, though.

"Garrett, I…", Erin started feebly, looking like it was painful for her to speak, "I need to tell you something. I need to tell you so much… I…"

"Shhh, don't. Not now. Let's wait with the chat until you're feeling better", he soothed, gently but firmly pushing Erin back on the pillow. Garrett had to admit to himself that he was quite relieved about this excuse to postpone the talk about her latest adventures and the feeling of guilt that was gnawing at his heart to a moment in which she looked less like a bird that had fallen out of the nest during a thunderstorm. He placed the kettle of broth on the fire and as soon as it was steaming he filled a wooden bowl and handed it to her.

"I don't want to eat", Erin commented miserably, turning her head away.

"Do you want me to feed you?", Garrett asked sarcastically, offering her a spoonful. To his mild delight, something fierce flashed in her eyes, and she brusquely took the bowl from him.

"Nice of you to ask, but I can do that myself. I'm not a child", she reminded him. "Thanks", she added feebly. A little smile flickered across Garrett's face. There was something of her old stubbornness. Seemed like her spirits would return to her. _Good_. Garrett watched contently as she was slowly sipping the broth before he helped himself to a bowl. The two ate in silence for a while. When Erin was done, she set the bowl aside and let herself sink between the blankets once more. Tiny sweat beads glistened on her forehead. She still had a fever, he guessed, even though her body had regained the temperature of a living being. Her forehead was glowing like a piece of ember. Apparently she had caught a heavy cold or even the autumn's flu while she was fleeing from the _Dawn's Light_ and still suffered from the last aftershocks of the sickness. That was what he thought, at least. He would have to ask her later and to be fair, Garrett was not really keen on talking about the mess they had been through, now that he thought about it, even though it had been pretty much the only thing he had been thinking about in the past weeks. The memories were still so very fresh, the pain deeply rooted. He would have to explain an awful lot.

Right now he just made sure Erin, again drifting away to sleep, was warm and comfortable. Garrett wiped her brow with a wet rag and got dressed. He didn't want to leave the tower at bright daylight. Also, he had to admit, he wanted to stay with Erin in case she needed something. Instead, Garrett busied himself with repairs in the clocktower, cared for his bow and blackjack, carefully rearranged Montonessi's marvelous paintings, polished his collection of City Heritage Plagues and fletched some arrows. Constantly improving his gear and armor to still higher levels of perfection was something he took great pride in, and usually the activity occupied his mind completely, challenging all of his senses and attention. Today, though, he found himself stopping from time to time to glance over at the bed.

When the sun was setting, a cold breeze blew dead leaves through the windows in his tower. Garrett thought about going for a walk, or rather, a climb in the South Quarter, but then decided to undo his harness instead and slipped between the sheets with Erin to keep her warm. He didn't regret his decision as he lay next to her, listening to the beating of her heart, with her hair still smelling like rain.

* * *

Erin felt terrible.

That wasn't even so much because of the sickness she had caught, she had had worse during her early years on the streets. She would get healthy soon, now that she was no longer wandering through the wilderness and the rain.

No, it was the raging feelings of anger, sorrow, guilt, and worst of all, the feeling of failure that tore her already scarred heart apart. After the accident at Northcrest Manor, when she fell and the… _thing_ with the Primal Stone happened, she could not recall much of the events after that, only her drifting in and out of consciousness, woken up by pain, fear, rage and more pain. It seemed like a year of constant nightmares whenever she tried to remember any details, the most prominent aspect of it her desperate attempts at reaching Garrett only through her mind. It had worked, but he had come late, so very late, when she had already given up inside. After Garrett had somehow drained the Primal Energy from her by combining the bits of the shattered stone, something far beyond her understanding, it had left her only tired, angry and confused. Erin had almost died again.

 _History repeats itself_... Except that this time Garrett had managed to help her up before she fell, and, still confused and suffering from the aftereffects of her slavery, she had felt little more than anger about his belated return. She wanted to leave, she wanted to never, ever see him again, or the men that had enslaved her, or the City.

Erin had fled, only clad in the ceremonial dress, running away from the _Dawn's Light_ into the wilderness. Her rage about the utter malignance that men, driven by their hunger for power, were able to commit kept her going. But over time, days of clueless wandering later, the anger left her with every step she did, and was replaced by sorrow. Sorrow, guilt and the deeply rooted desire to see Garrett again.

Erin helplessly clenched the sheets she was lying on in her fist when she thought of how stupid she had been. Stupid, arrogant, reckless. The only person in the world she ever had trusted, the only person that ever had cared for her, shown her gentle feelings, was Garrett. Her deep admiration and respect for him had soon turned into more than. Much, much more. Her affection for the Master Thief verged close to the border of obsession, she knew that, but it filled her with such a determination to convince him of her value, to make him recognize her worth… The wish to win Garrett's respect, to be like him, had been the only thing that kept her alive.

Erin knew now that she had been doing it all wrong. Anger and frustration coupled with her short temper had led her into so many dangerous situations, had made her choose the fast kill rather than the elegant, stealthy way that her mentor preferred. During her year of slavery, she had come to realize how childish of her it was to rely on raw violence alone and that it probably had pushed Garrett even further away from her.

She had always been a source of trouble for Garrett, and she was trouble right now, forcing him to take care of her while she was helpless. After the anger had left her drained and tired and sickness had taken hold of her, all Erin had wanted was return to the City and find Garrett, since she knew he was the only one that would care for her. Finding him had probably saved her life another time. For now she just enjoyed the feeling of him lying next to her, the subtle, earthy scent of his skin under the black linen he wore, listening to his breathing. He had never been so close to her in such an intimate way and the mere thought of it made her heart beat faster. Determined to relish this as long as it lasted, Erin concentrated on clearing her head, on getting well again.

Could he ever accept her apology? Erin sighed when she thought about the mess she had to come clear about. What if he sent her away forever after her recovery? What if he had given up on her and never wanted to see her again? A dark, chilling fear tied her bowels into a knot. She wanted to change everything, but maybe she had already screwed up beyond repair. Erin didn't know if she could live without Garrett.

* * *

The next two and a half days blurred together in one heady mass when Garrett tried to remember what part exactly led to the events that followed Erin's recovery.

Garrett found that didn't mind delaying his still unfinished mission for a little while, surprisingly. As long as Erin needed his help, he used all his energy to get her well again. Since he had failed to come to her aide when she needed him most the last two times, he was determined to make up for his mistake. Seeing her getting healthy again filled him with a determination that both excited and confused him. Basso would need to wait for his tiara for a while.

All Garrett did was get up at one point of the day, make fire, prepare food for Erin, check her falling fever, avoid any conversation by inventing excuses, busy himself with crafting activities in the clocktower, physical exercises or a short thieving trip in the neighborhood, return to the tower and slip under the blanket next to her, repeat. That was all, except that every time he undressed and got to bed, he caught himself looking forward to it. Erin's body had a reasonable temperature again and she also had stopped shivering like a leaf. When he cautiously nestled against her, he felt her reacting to him, like arching her back a little or pulling her legs up so that her bare feet rested on the soft fabric of his smallclothes, rubbing against his shins. Listening to her heartbeat while she slept had a soothing effect on Garrett. Irritatingly, he caught himself letting his eyes wander about her slender form under the torn dress more often, checking her healing bruises and cuts. He realized that he had missed her much more than he liked to admit, and looked forward to her recovery, doing anything in his power to speed up the process, even though the thought of having to talk about the terrible things they had been through as soon as she was able to didn't really appeal to him. Still, sleeping next to her was more than just nice. It was thrilling.

All of this contributed equally to the chaotic chain of events that followed the day on which he diagnosed Erin's fever gone, Garrett decided later. He wished her a good night, lying in his place next to her to keep her warm since she still looked a little shaky. And because he enjoyed lying next to her, possibly, something that she felt the same about as far as he could tell.

He fell asleep, until a startled magpie woke him up in the middle of the night. A bright, silvery full moon illuminated the chilly clocktower. Garrett's head rested next to Erin's on the pillow. They had been spooning, as always, but somehow Erin had turned during her sleep so that now she was facing him.

Thoughtfully, Garrett regarded her peaceful face, her delicate features with the dark shades around her eyes, leftovers of the masking black kohl they both wore and that one never really got to wash away, and the slim, pale lips. He slowly inclined his head until his forehead touched hers. It was cool and dry. _Good_.

After short hesitation, Garrett got even closer and carefully pushed his nose into the messy black hair of her crown, inhaling deeply. She didn't smell of rain anymore, her usual scent was back. He came to the conclusion that this was a sign of health, and also that he really liked the way she smelled. Closing his eyes with enjoyment, Garrett breathed in deeply a few times more, savoring the soft, sweet scent of her hair and skin.

His eyes flicked open as Erin moved slightly. When he peeked down cautiously, he saw that she was awake, her icy blue eyes gazing up at him with an expression he could hardly judge.

 _Well, this is awkward…_

Garrett opened his mouth to improvise an explanation. But before he could say anything, Erin had lifted her head and caught his mouth with hers.

Garrett froze, utterly stunned. It took him one or two heartbeats of shocked numbness until his body reacted automatically, closing his eyes and returning the kiss. He cupped her face in his hands and dug his fingers into her short hair while Erin's tongue brushed against his lips, quick and hot like a flame. Blinking as he felt the wetness on his lips, Garrett complied shortly after and allowed her to deepen the kiss, taking her in, his tongue curled against hers. Her mouth tasted so sweet and heady that he felt like savoring some expensive wine, making his head swim and sending shivers down his spine. Erin pressed herself as close to his body as she possibly could, her breath quick and flat, kissing him hungrily.

Garrett registered some stray thoughts swirling vaguely in the back of his mind about what in the Trickster's name he was doing here and why he didn't do anything to stop this, but then Erin grabbed his hands, locked her fingers against his and guided them down to where her dress was knotted, signaling him to assist her to get rid of it. With a part of him not believing what he did, Garrett undid the knot at professional speed and unveiled Erin's naked body like a magnificent piece of art, tossing her dress aside in the blink of an eye. In the silvery light of the moon, bringing forth her firm curves under the pale skin and the delicate lines of her muscles, she indeed looked like an antique statue made of marble, created by a master of his craft. When Garrett's highly sensitive palms traced across her slender silhouette as if he was palpating a painting's frame for a hidden switch, finally allowed to explore her naked skin freely, an avalanche of sensations rushed through him.

It was as if a dam broke.

All of his thoughts wiped away, Garrett fully surrendered to Erin's touch, to her kisses, to her likewise nimble hands that lifted up the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head. Erin's blue eyes glittered when she let them wander over his naked upper body, her pupils black with desire. Her breath tickled his skin and chased goose bumps up his arms as she bent down and kissed his muscular chest and the pronounced lines of his clavicles, working her way up to his neck, licking his ear. Feeling her wet, warm tongue brush against his skin forced Garrett to bite his lip to suppress a sudden moan. His breathing had become quick and flat as well, his vision was blurred but for Erin in front of him and the way her body moved when she pressed it against his. While he kissed her hungrily once more, cupping her breasts in his hands and gently rubbing the palm of his thumb against her nipples, Erin moaned his name right next to his ear and he found that was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. She eagerly started fumbling on the waistband of his smallclothes and Garrett assisted her efforts by pushing them down his legs and kicking them aside. The blanket followed closely after, the cold forgotten. Their heat drove away the chill. Garrett, hypnotized by the tiny sweat beads that ran down Erin's neck, collecting in the dent of her clavicles and running down between her breasts, bent down and licked them up, rubbing his face against the smooth skin. While he did so, she let her hands wander down his slender abdomen, letting her fingers dance along the edges of his muscles and his hipbones and further south still.

When Erin closed her fingers firmly around his manhood and started caressing it, moving her nimble hands along his shaft and subtly swirling a finger across the tip, the powerful rush of sensations took Garrett so unexpectedly that a loud, throaty moan escaped him. Desperately trying to keep himself quiet, he pressed his face against Erin's breasts and clutched her back, shivering with tension as she continued to feed the fire radiating from his loins. When he looked up, gasping for breath, he saw that Erin was smiling wickedly, the same playful-yet-mischievous smirk she had so often shown when she was teasing him. Garrett was way too happy to see her smile again to feel annoyed about the shivering puddle she had turned him into. Instead, he turned the table by gently caressing her shoulders and arms with one hand while he used the other to explore the small triangle of curly black fuzz between her thighs. Garrett was still struggling to keep himself from moaning too loud, but Erin felt way too good, so he kissed her deeply and tried to focus. Moving his nimble fingers like the professional he was, he quickly let them delve inside her heat while picking up some of the wetness and drawing gentle circles across that sweet spot.

Erin closed her eyes and purred throatily. Encouraged by her reaction, Garrett allowed his middle finger to enter her more deeply, never stopping the circles. Erin clutched to his back, shivering with lust.

"A bit like picking a lock, right?", Garrett whispered huskily into her ear. "People tell me I have a knack for that." Smiling, he added his ring finger.

"Garrett…", Erin moaned, digging her fingernails into the skin of his back. Garrett bit his lip at the sudden pain, but somehow it just enhanced his sensations. He felt that he couldn't take the burning tension much longer, and judging by the way Erin's eyes shone, she seemed to feel the same. Garrett gently turned her on her back and she eagerly complied, allowing him to place himself between her legs.

Erin had never looked more beautiful, Garrett thought as he entered her, with her gazing up at him with those deep blue eyes, deep as oceans. He would drown in them, he knew, but it didn't matter. He would welcome it.

Garrett pushed deeper in until his belly touched hers and propped himself up on his elbows, pressing his forehead to hers as he started moving. Erin gasped shortly, but then he felt her smile against his lips. She tilted her head back and moaned softly, responding to his rhythmic motions by winding her hips. Garrett could feel the sweat of her skin against his as she wrapped her legs around him and pushed him in further. Biting back another moan, he let his hands roam over her upper body and through her hopelessly messed up hair while Erin bit his neck and breathed in his ear. Garrett felt like he was on fire. Being inside her was so good he could barely handle the rush of sensations that threatened to overflow his mind. He felt his own completion approaching, so he sped up his thrusts and concentrated on Erin to hold himself back. Between her breathy yelps of delight, he could feel her hands quiver as she clutched his back, obviously just as close to her breaking point as he was. Moaning softly, she whispered his name once more, and then she closed her eyes and tilted her head back, clenching the crumpled sheet in her fists. When Erin climaxed, arching her back and trembling, Garrett came as well, no longer able to control himself with the overwhelming tension. With several loud, throaty groans he spent his seed inside her. He collapsed on her body, completely spent.

Garrett lay on top of Erin, gasping for breath just as she was and covered in sweat. After a while, he felt Erin's hands pushing at his shoulders, and rolled to the side. She immediately followed, pressing her body against his and wrapping her arms around him, nuzzling his neck.

Garrett stared into the empty air for long moment, trying to find his way back into reality. Quickly enough, the realization of what he just had done and what it meant hit him harshly. He did not return her embrace, avoided looking at her.

 _The mill_ … Pictures of Erin's mill emerged in Garrett's mind, of the paintings she had made of him. Just then, he had realized how deeply her affection for him must be rooted, and how it seemed to go far beyond friendship. Her wild eagerness to sleep with him, something he would never have dared to initiate himself, seemed to prove that. Now that his lust was slowly draining away from him, his head was left clear, unpleasantly clear, and still overflowing with the questions he had not yet come to ask her.

 _This just got a lot more complicated_ … he thought sourly. Had he made another mistake by allowing his desire to take control? Would she take this for a physical confession of feelings that he didn't have? Well, that he was pretty sure he didn't have. _Ninety percent sure. Well, maybe eighty. No less than seventy five._ Garrett sighed.

To his mild relief, Erin lifted her head and asked: "Are you already regretting this?"

Garrett peeked down on her. She wasn't joking, he could see it in her eyes. He couldn't stop his mouth from curling into a lopsided smile.

"I should, but I don't. I'm just afraid that it's not going to make explaining that mess we left any easier."

"I guess you're right", Erin came back.

"What do you think about taking care of that tomorrow? Otherwise the last hour of us trying to relax ourselves was all for naught", Garrett suggested, combing his fingers through her damp hair.

"Good idea", Erin said, closing her eyes with enjoyment at his caress.

"Judging by your smile, you seemed to have enjoyed it a lot", Garrett remarked.

"I did", Erin answered grinning. "And judging by the noise you made, same goes for you."

Garrett kept a straight face and hoped that he wasn't blushing. "T'was pretty nice."

Erin smirked. "Liar."

He huffed, but didn't make an attempt to deny it. Yes, he had enjoyed it, more than he could put into words. His scarce experiences in bed confined themselves to a number of very short and often quite disappointing acquaintances he never really cared much about, but _this_ had been an utterly different experience. He still felt overwhelmed with leaden satisfaction, relaxed from head to feet and pleasingly tired. Finally, Garrett returned Erin's embrace, burying his face in her hair and inhaling her scent. Soon he noticed that her eyes had closed and she had fallen asleep, and he decided to do the same, pushing away any thoughts on what the next day might bring.


	3. Chapter 3 - Lady's Mantle

**Chapter 3 – Lady's Mantle**

When Garrett woke up the next morning, he realized that he had never really been in the awkward situation of a morning after a heated night. At least not in a situation in which stealthily leaving through the window never to return was no option. Unsure about what would expect him, he decided to postpone any embarrassing conversation by slipping out of the bed unnoticed by Erin and padded over to a table with a bowl of rainwater. Garrett dipped his face in the ice cold water until he felt a bit more awake. Rummaging around in a drawer produced a chunk of soap and he quickly washed himself. Then he picked up a brush and briefly brushed his black hair back to prevent the strands from hanging in front of his eyes. Before the accident at Northcrest Manor, Garrett had worn his hair cropped short, but after he had been unconscious for almost a year it had grown a lot longer. Since it had tended to block his vision, he had cut it himself with tools that were clearly not made for that purpose, starting with the temples and sides. When it came to the hair on his crown he had decided to keep the length, brushing it straight back. It made it actually very easy for him to stick his hair under the hood without anything peeking out, especially when he used a short leather band to tie some longer strands together in a short, messy ponytail at the top of the back of his head. What he had not changed was the care of his beard; a rough shave every once in a while resulted in his usual mess of thin, dark stubbles. While Garrett went in search of his smallclothes that he had tossed away so carelessly last night, he found Erin's ceremonial dress. He could imagine that she wasn't keen on wearing it again, but he also considered it a polite gesture if he offered her an alternative. He stashed the dress away on a shelf and opened a chest with spare clothing, old armor and leather that he used to repair his gear. He found a linen shirt that was a bit too slim fit and too long for him. It was so dark blue that it was almost black. After Garrett had sniffed at it and judged it more or less clean, he folded it neatly and placed it on the nightstand for Erin. After short hesitation, he also added the bowl of water, the soap and the rag he had used to clean her wounds. _She might want to wash away all the sweat I have covered her in_ , he thought.

Garrett eventually found his smallclothes and his shirt and dressed. He didn't feel like donning his harness yet, but he put on his pants and leather boots with the soft soles as it still was quite cold, despite the sunshine. Then he lit a fire in the basket a bit further away from the bed to not disturb Erin and heated a kettle of water. He vaguely remembered having stolen a box of excellent coffee from a rich tradesman a while ago, and a quick stocktaking of his supplies allowed him to prepare coffee, something that he hadn't done in ages. This felt like a special occasion and he couldn't think of another opportunity to use it.

After a pleasingly calm hour of just sitting on the railing under the softly clattering clockwork in the dusty sunshine, sipping the steaming coffee and watching Erin sleep, Garrett decided to wake her up. He filled another cup with coffee and gently grabbed her by the shoulder. Erin groaned quietly and turned on her back, rubbing her eyes. When she saw him, she smiled vaguely.

"Mornin'", she said, yawning. Erin sat up and stretched her arms and back. Garrett blinked, a little taken aback by the sudden view of naked upper body and concentrated on looking at her face.

"Coffee?"

"Thanks." Erin took the cup from his hands, sniffed at the steaming liquid and gingerly took a sip. They both drank their coffee in silence, Erin huddling under the blanket and Garrett perched up cross-legged on the wooden railing above the gaping stairwell of the clocktower.

After Erin had finished her last sip, she put the cup aside on the nightstand, crossed her arms in front of her chest and took a deep breath. Garrett watched her warily. At least it was not so hard now to avoid staring at her breasts all the time.

"This is not going to be easy…", she started. Garrett nodded, fixating his gaze on the leftover coffee.

"I have so much to tell you… and apologize for", Erin continued.

"Me too." He looked up, sighed and also placed his cup next to him. He padded over to the bed and sat down on the edge. "Not really looking forward to it, you know."

"Me neither", Erin came back quietly.

Garrett blinked. "Well? If nobody of us wants to start, what then?"

To his utter surprise, Erin unfolded her arms, and he could not prevent his gaze from wandering south immediately.

"You could stop me", she suggested softly, pulling down the blanket and revealing her naked body, specks of sunlight dappling her pale skin. Garrett swung himself over her at a speed that surprised even him, kissing her fervently and simultaneously trying to get rid of his pants. He knelt over her and she helped him unlace the leather while he tossed his shirt aside. Cursing himself inwardly, Garrett trailed his tongue down her neck and over her breasts while she breathlessly moaned his name. Not long after that, the City's great clock noisily announced the noon hour, just in time to drown out Garrett's husky groans as he climaxed at the same time as Erin did.

* * *

In the evening, a few hours later, Garrett finally was not only completely dressed, but also on his way to Basso to deliver his tiara. While he nimbly jumped across the rooftops, keeping a keen eye out for stray watchmen down below, he thought about the last afternoon again. As if their second escapade hadn't made things even more complicated than they already were, Erin and him had shared the bed a third time that afternoon.

 _If only it had been something as normal as the bed and not a table…_

To his great abashment, this time it had been Garrett's initiative. He was unsure about what had been driving him, for Erin had simply been sitting on a table, only dressed in his shirt which was way too loose for her, eating a pear. Just before he had left for Basso, he went over to her to tell her where he was going. Somehow, the way she was looking at him with a drop of pearjuice running down her chin, dressed in his old shirt that cloaked her slim silhouette just enough to stimulate his mind to think about how she looked beneath it, with her long legs only covered to her middle thigh… Something had overwhelmed him and a heartbeat later Garrett was wrapped in her legs, the shirt pushed up to her waist, taking her while she was sitting on the table, breathlessly whispering his name in his ear.

Shaking his head and focusing on the path lit in the golden light of the evening sun that lay in front of him, Garrett skipped across a gap, swung himself over a railing and hopped down into the alley that led over to the Crippled Burrick. When he entered the cellar, Basso was standing on his desk, feeding a rather scruffy little jackdaw with corn. As he saw the Thief, a broad smile lit up his face.

"Garrett, old friend! So good to see ya finally, I almost thought the guards had done you in! Come in, come in", he roared. "Please, help yourself."

Garrett pushed his mask down, picked a cube of cheese from the plate to which Basso had pointed and daintily plucked a stray plume from it before putting it into his mouth. He indicated the bird.

"A new manager?"

Basso laughed. "Yeah, kind of. You know, nothing can ever replace my little Jenivere, may she find peace, but I really loathe the silence in here. This guy here is called Corvo. You know, the books say jackdaws can even learn to talk!"

"If so, he could also work as you secretary", Garrett commented. Corvo turned his head with the eerie silvery eyes and cawed at him.

"My pleasure", Garrett said, making a little bow before turning back to Basso. "You might want to take a look at this."

Basso eagerly took the Casterling-tiara from Garrett's outstretched hand and held it in front of the candle. The emeralds and sapphires glistened in the candlelight, sprinkling the walls with blue and green drops of light. Yes, it felt a little bad to let this beauty go.

"Great job, Garrett. And definitely original, every single stone. Good. Your payment's on the desk over there", Basso said, carefully wrapping the tiara in a piece of velvet. "And? Any news?"

Garrett hesitated shortly, unsure whether he should tell Basso about Erin's return. He decided that it couldn't do any harm if he did, as long as he didn't mention their adventures in bed. And on the table. Anyway, Basso would find out about her as soon as Erin left the clocktower again and continued working for him. He frowned. _If_ she wanted to continue and not leave the City forever, that is. He had no idea what would happen after they had cleared the mess between them.

"Erin's back", Garrett said before his line of thoughts could run lose. Basso turned and lifted an eyebrow.

"Really? So the girl survived, yes? Well, that's wonderful to hear. I quite liked her, despite your little squabbles. If she had only listened to you more often she might have rivaled your skills."

Garrett didn't answer. Something about the gaze Basso had thrown him made him suspicious. The fence indicated him to wait, turned to a shelf and started rummaging around in a box with a dirty sign that said _Medicine_.

"Are we done here?", Garrett asked warily. Something about the way Basso had looked at him felt alarming.

"Wait a second, I got something for ya. Damn this mess… Ah, here we go!"

Basso showed the Thief a small bag of cloth, corded up with a string. Garrett palpated the bag carefully. It felt like it was filled with dried peas or small round pebbles.

"What's this?"

"It's _Lady's mantle_. Well, to be more exact, extract of seeds of Lady's mantle rolled into pills. An herb with special uses when it comes to… you know, female business", Basso explained.

Garrett didn't move a muscle. "If this is something that women are supposed to place between their dresses in the cupboard to make them smell nice, I'm afraid you don't know Erin that well."

"No, no, no, much more _fundamental_." Seeing that Garrett didn't understand a single word, Basso put his hands on his hips and eyed him with a smirk so dirty that Garrett started to get seriously nervous.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh Garrett, come on! Your neck is covered in hickeys and lovebites! Don't you tell me that it wasn't Erin who decorated you like this?"

Instinctively, Garrett's hand went to his neck. He had completely forgotten about how often Erin had kissed and bitten his neck. No, he hadn't seen the marks, but he also hadn't checked himself in the mirror before he went out. He rarely did. Well, denying that they had come closer to each other seemed useless now.

"Could be. And what does this Lady's mantle do exactly?", Garrett asked, trying to keep calm.

"Well, did you have a roll with the girl or not?", Basso asked back.

"It's been pretty much the only thing we've been doing the past three days", Garrett admitted reluctantly.

"Really? You lucky bastard, look at you! But in that case it could be too late… You know, Lady's mantle is something that the, well, the lady takes after the business to keep her belly flat. Never thought about that? If your little adventure is already a while past, you might want to start thinking about a name."

A terrible realization dawned on Garrett.

 _Erin might be pregnant._

Quick as a striking snake, Garrett grabbed the bag, turned and dashed out of Basso's store like a horde of guards were on his heels. He heard Basso laughing behind him, not sure whether he should be thankful or furious. Right now, he felt panic rising inside him like never before. He cursed himself under his breath. Why had he not thought of this? _Why_? Had he been that out of his mind about the reunion with her? Neither looking left or right, he skittered up the next best ladder, jumped across a large gap between two roofs, rolled on the other side to keep up his momentum and sprinted like a chased rabbit towards the clocktower.

Halfway up the stairs, he started calling for Erin. As he arrived under the clockwork, trying to catch his breath, Erin awaited him with a screwdriver in her hand.

"What is it? Somebody following you? Guards?", she asked alarmed, eyeing the stairwell behind him.

"Erin, quick… Here, take one of these!" Garrett pushed the bag of pills in her hands.

Erin blinked at him uncomprehendingly. "What is this?"

"Lady's mantle."

Erin's face went blank. Garrett, who finally felt able to stand upright again without the blood droning in his head, said: "It's for…"

"I know what it is for", Erin said without looking at him.

"So? Why don't you take one? Basso said it might be good idea to hurry!"

"Come."

Erin walked back to the bed and sat down on the edge, signaling him to follow her. Garrett, utterly confused, followed her reluctantly and sat down next to her.

Erin took a deep breath, turned the pillow next to her around and produced another small bag, almost identical to the one Garrett had gotten from Basso.

"I took Lady's mantle after we first slept together. And the past two times too. So no danger there, I'm all protected."

Garrett couldn't believe his eyes. "If this is a trick similar to the one in which a rabbit and a top hat are involved, you should think about a change of career. Where did you get this from? You were just wearing a dress and nothing else when I brought you here."

Erin stared at the little bags in her hands. "It was here the whole time."

Garrett raised an eyebrow. "Pardon me?"

Erin took another breath. "I… I placed it here one day, when you were gone on a longer mission. Under a loose plank."

Garrett wanted to ask her _Why in the Trickster's name did you do this?,_ but he knew the answer already. _Because you had hope. Because you wanted all of this, us, to happen so badly, all the time. Because you've felt like this for me for so very long…_

By the way her hands trembled, her fists clinging the bags of Lady's mantle, avoiding his unbelieving stare, Garrett could tell that Erin knew that he knew. He didn't know what to say, and would have preferred to say nothing, but before he could help it the words tumbled out of his mouth.

"I've been to your mill."

Erin turned her head so rapidly as if he had struck her, her face a shocked mask. Panic, shame, and desperation danced across her features before she dropped the bags and buried her face in her hands. Garrett knew that what he just had said to her was equal to _I've seen the paintings you've made of me, especially the one of my face right on the wall so you could see it from your bed, and I know perfectly well what all of this means. I know, and you know that I know._

"I've messed up…", Erin whispered, her face still hidden behind her hands. She sounded as if she would start to cry at any second. Garrett had never seen her cry, not once, and he was determined to not be the first thing that would make her cry. After a short hesitation he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer to embrace her, pressing her against his side. He felt her resisting at first, but then she complied and leaned against him, still avoiding his gaze.

"You've not messed up", he told her quietly.

"I have! I've done everything wrong, _everything_! I disappointed you and put you in danger and almost _killed_ you while I was filled with the Primal and left you behind and when I tried to come back to apologize I did everything wrong again and now you're going to send me away", she blurted out, shivering.

Garrett just rubbed her shoulder, resting his head against hers. "How long?"

She got what he meant. _How long have you been feeling for me that way?_ "Since I've met you, I guess, but at first not in _that_ way. You were the first person to care for me, so it was just natural that I liked you a lot. You were the closest thing to the family I never had, like a big brother. But later, when we spent more time on missions together, I started to…"

 _To love me_ , Garrett finished in his head. Loudly, he asked: "And you thought you could impress me by becoming an assassin?"

Erin flinched. "I now that was stupid. I've had an entire year to think about every single day of my life, to think about all the mistakes I made. I was childish, I wanted to be strong, even though you only tried to teach me to be strong by being subtle instead of violent. I was so very full of rage at first, taking it out on everybody except you, but now I know that you've only tried to help me. I don't want to be angry any more. I'm so sorry…" Her last words were merely a whisper.

Garrett let that sink in. Yes, he had been disappointed by her for a long time, when she left his mentorship to kill for money. When they met again, the evening of the accident, his joy of seeing her again and the progress she had made had also been mixed with some disenchantment on her unchanged aggressive behavior. But he believed her words when she said that she regretted this.

"I'm sorry too, you know", he admitted, thinking of the accident. "I've made mistakes as well."

Now, for the first time since they started talking, Erin gazed up at him, her eyes shrouded, but vigilant. "You've taken my claw."

Garrett nodded, feeling miserable. "I should not have done that. If I hadn't, nothing of this might have happened. It was partly my fault. Also, I was unconscious for almost an entire year while you were taken into slavery, and I failed to help you when you needed help. That is unforgivable."

Erin bowed her head. "I've been angry with you because of that, you know, that's why I ran away after I've managed to climb up the hull of the ship. I was still so very confused and full of rage from the Primal Energy that had been in me, and I left. The Gloom I heard Orion talk about… That was me, wasn't it?" She looked miserable. "I've killed so many people…"

Garrett frowned and shook his head. "It was not you. It was your anger about being caught in the Primal Energy that manifested in the Gloom, not your normal self." He turned his head away. "I thought for a while that it was my fault, because I caused the accident to happen. But I guess that in the end, if it is anyone's fault, it was Orion and the Baron and their hunger for power. They should not have messed with forces far beyond their understanding."

Erin just shivered and Garrett hugged her a little closer. "Why did you come back to me?", he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"After all my strength and the anger that has driven me forward were gone, I felt so weak and miserable. I felt that I must return to you to tell you how sorry I am."

"And that's when you caught that sickness."

"Wandering around in a thunderstorm in a thin dress is a bad idea, Garrett."

"Good advice."

They sat in silence for a while, Garrett thinking about what to say next. He decided to ask the question that had been burning in his mind for so long.

"Erin… Can you ever forgive me?"

Erin's mouth curled into a small smile. "I already have."

Garrett couldn't help but smile as well. "Well, then… Nice to hear that."

"Garrett…?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think you can forgive me as well? I want to change, I really do! I'm sick and tired of being angry, of killing. I want to start over, and leave all the pain and the rage behind. I want…" She took a shuddering breath. "I would like to learn from you again, if you don't mind. Not all the time, mind you, I'm not a kid anymore, but maybe… You know, like neighbors that meet from time to time to play at dice, except that we could meet to do some thievery and teach me your ways. If you are willing to take my apology…" Erin broke off and gazed down at her hands again.

Garrett thought about this. A thousand reasons why he should decline her offer swirled through his head. He had decided to work alone long ago and preferred to keep it that way. He didn't follow many rules, but working alone, never trusting anyone and only killing as a last resort were essential to him. He didn't doubt Erin's will to change her bad habits, but he also knew her very well and that it wouldn't be that simple. It surely meant trouble with guards and customers, trouble with her impatience and offensive approach at things. Garrett could never change that, it was deeply rooted in her, he had learned that the hard way. Also, he wasn't sure he could ever feel for her what she apparently felt for him. He never had before for anybody. He didn't want to build up false hopes in her.

 _I've also never risked my life like this before… Except for Basso, but Basso is my most valuable business partner, and she is not, and still I went after her._

Now that Garrett thought about the last weeks, his feelings of deep regret that he had missed the opportunity to help her, to apologize, had been gnawing at his heart unlike anything he could remember. Thinking of the terrible nightmares Erin had gotten through had almost driven him mad with worry and guilt. And now he had the chance to prevent her from getting harmed. Teach her the silent art anew, so that something like this would never happen again.

Make up for his mistake.

Maybe it was worth a try. It would be hard, very hard, but that was Garrett's most quintessential impulse in his life after all: Exploit all aspects of the silent art, hone his skills to pure perfection, challenge himself. The challenge was everything. He had to think of the reason why he took Erin as an apprentice in the first place, years ago. She had proven to be very talented and they had made an excellent team for a time. He had enjoyed working with her. Something in Erin had reminded Garrett of himself when he was young, challenged him to steer the obvious but still unpolished talents in her in the right direction. Something about her had fascinated him, and still did. Today even more than before.

"Yes."

Erin blinked, unbelieving. Then her lips slowly stretched into a wide smile. That wicked glitter was back in her eyes.

"If by _yes_ you mean that you want to give me another chance?"

Garrett nodded slowly. "But just a try, you hear me? We'll see how it goes. And you are not going to stay here."

Erin grinned. "I wanted to go back to my beloved mill anyway, don't you worry. I'm not a fan of heights. Like Basso once said, only crows and magpies live in clocktowers." Then, suddenly, her face fell.

"Wait… Didn't you mention that Basso gave you this?" She indicated the bag of Lady's mantle on the floor.

"For once it was a present, not loot", Garrett confirmed.

"You told him about us?!", Erin asked indignantly.

"I just told Basso that you were back. He would have found out sooner or later. Then he saw these here…" Garrett pushed down his mask and showed her his neck, covered in lovebites. Erin raised her eyebrows. "… And put one and one together."

"Not embarrassing at all." Erin let her head droop and sighed. "Damn this sly bastard… He's going to assume that we are…", Erin started, looking insecure.

 _A couple._

That was another matter Garrett wanted to address, and it was the hardest one. He had to tell Erin that he would most certainly never be willing to fully commit himself to another person, despite her obvious feelings for him. He needed to tell her that so she knew what she was getting into. Garrett didn't want to raise false hopes in her. He took a deep breath.

"I'm never going to be what you probably hope for me to become", Garrett finally said, watching her face carefully. She didn't look happy, but she also didn't flinch, he had to grant her that.

"I knew that, I guess. To be honest, I had expected you'd send me away, taking into account all that I have done wrong. So, and I don't care if you believe me or not, I'm more than content with being your apprentice and neighbor again. Really. It is so much more than I could ever have hoped for."

Garrett eyed her suspiciously, trying to find out if she was lying. He didn't find any clue for that, so he let it pass. It was a decision he could not make for her, it was hers alone. He could live with that if she could, he decided.

"I guess what we did the last two days also helped you to forget some of the gloom you were carrying around with you?"

She cocked her head, a lopsided smirk on her face, and nodded. "Do _you_ regret that I made you slip under the sheets with me?"

Garrett kept a straight face and tried not to blush. "I'm very sure that _that_ matter was your fault as well as mine."

Erin laughed, a sound he had desperately missed as he realized now. "Yes, quite." She gazed up at him. "Sorry about the lovebites, Garrett. Got a little out of control there, I guess."

"I take it as a compliment."

"You should."

She indicated him to show her his neck again. Garrett pushed his mask down and tilted his head a little. Erin brought her face closer to him until he felt her breath tickle his sensitive skin. Closing his eyes in anticipation, Garrett slowly released the breath he had been holding when she carefully kissed the marks she had left on his neck. A shiver ran down his spine.

"Just don't make any new ones."

"No teeth this time, I promise."

Garrett felt like he would not mind if the future contained a bit more of _that_ matter, now that he thought about it.

Then, he remembered something completely different.

"There is another thing we should take care of, Erin", he said. She didn't stop kissing him. "You can't really go on heists in nothing but that old shirt of mine. You need equipment."

Erin looked up suddenly. "I know where my stuff is!"

Garrett raised an eyebrow.

"When the men in robes brought me away from the ceremony chamber, they took me to the Thief Taker General's mansion. I was still halfway awake and I vaguely remember him being there, cursing you and surrounded by a flock of emergency doctors. They took my clothing and my weapons and stored it in a chest in the mansion. I don't know where exactly, but it was there."

Imagining how these madmen undressed the helpless and injured Erin and stuffed her in a ceremony dress made Garrett knit his brow.

"The chest could be gone by now. You do not know where it is, and the mansion is not only large but also going to be heavily guarded. The Thief Taker General's love for me did not grow since we met the last time, I'm afraid, and he is more determined than ever to get rid of me", Garrett summarized.

Erin frowned. "So… Do you think it's too dangerous?"

"I think it's going to be hard, and that is just what I want. There is no reward without a risk. Challenge is everything."

Erin grinned in anticipation. "Oh, I've missed this so much. What do we do? Got a plan already?"

Garrett had never been inside the Thief Taker General's mansion, he had to admit, but he knew the area and convenient spots around the fancy building from which a silent watcher could take a closer look before striking. He fetched a piece of parchment from a table, placed it on the nightstand and routinely drew a rough sketch of the area to explain to Erin what he had in mind. She listened intently and tried to add her input which turned out to be helpful in several cases. Garrett noticed that this felt a lot like old times, and that it awoke some kind of warm, nostalgic sensation in him. When they came to the question what Erin would be wearing before they had found her belongings, she remembered that she had some very worn-out, badly fitting parts of clothing left in her mill, which was still better than just an old shirt from Garrett.

The next afternoon, they would visit her mill and then go on their way to reach the mansion by nightfall. From there, Garrett had planned, they would watch carefully and improvise according to what awaited them.

As soon as they were done, dozens of parchments filled with sketches, arrows and symbols later, they decided to catch some sleep before preparing their heist, and thus the unspoken question of how they would spend the day hang between them. Erin was healthy again, so technically she didn't need a warming body next to her and Garrett might have slept on the floor again to leave the bed for her. On the other hand, Garrett didn't really welcome having to sleep on the wooden planks, not to mention how much he would like to snuggle up against her while they slept. Erin spared him the embarrassment of having to ask by slipping under the blanket and leaving obvious room next to her for him to join her. Considering what had happened the last few times when he had been in bed with her, part of Garrett was a little insecure if he really wanted another amorous adventure after all the emotional ups and downs of this day, but another, slightly larger part of him was craving for just that.

He undressed, carefully removing his armor and harness bit by bit in professional routine and placed the parts on a neat pile on a shelf. He was aware that Erin was watching him while he did so, but he didn't make an attempt to hide while he unlaced his leather and unfastened the belts and straps.

When only his smallclothes were left, he got under the blanket next to her. Erin blew out the candles and turned to face him, lying on her side. Garrett did the same, watching her, unsure about what to do. After a while, Erin placed her hand in the gap between them. After a moment of hesitation, Garrett placed his hand on hers, slipping his digits between her fingers. The palm of her thumb gently rubbed his hand. They remained like this for a while, with Garrett watching her slender fingers, how her sinews played when she moved them, how elegantly they entwined with his. Fascinated by her hand, he started playing with it, ran his own fingers along hers, turning her hand this way and that to admire the graceful dance of both their muscles. He shuffled a little closer and rubbed his face against her soft palm, kissing the tips of her fingers and licking her slender wrist.

"I'll keep in mind that whenever I want to completely distract you I just need to rub my hand in your face", Erin commented after he didn't know how long.

Garrett, who had been slowly running his tongue along the length of her ring finger, froze in his motion, opened his eyes and frowned at her. Erin had apparently been watching him become completely caught up in his fascination with an expression of mild consternation and amusement, but now she snickered.

"You have a thing for hands, don't you?"

"Quite." Garrett kissed the back of her hand. "Hands are a Thief's most valuable tools if they are only used properly. I believe that there are no limitations when it comes to perfecting them for craftsmanship, art and even battle, but it requires a lifetime of dedication and training if one wants to exploit the full potential of what can be done with hands."

Erin blinked. "I've never looked at it that way. But now that you mention it, I can see that you take that more than seriously."

"I do. And so should you", Garrett answered. A little embarrassed, he let go of her hand. Erin just smiled, shuffled over to him and wrapped one arm around him so his head rested on it. The other hand she placed in front of him invitingly. Garrett couldn't prevent one of the corners of his mouth to curl up in a lopsided smirk. He returned her embrace, pressing his forehead against hers and gently kneading the hand she had offered him.

Somehow, his fascination of hands had managed to get him more than just a bit aroused, but now he was content to just lie next to Erin, inhale her scent and listen to her soft breathing while she fell asleep. Garrett had gone through more emotional strain lately than in the last years combined, and finally having more or less sorted out what had been weighing him down left him with a leaden tiredness. He was thankful for Erin's return and that she had forgiven him. Still, the memory of why they had separated in the first place was present in his mind, their constant controversy. He was unsure about whether accepting her proposal to team up again was a good decision or not, but only giving her another chance would reveal that. Tomorrow, he said to himself, pressing a kiss on her forehead, they would see.


	4. Chapter 4 - Shards

A/N: Looks I'm not able to write a single chapter without anything dirty going on. Oh well. I'm not going to apologize, I can't help it ;). Let me know whether you like this or not and enjoy the next chapter!

* * *

 **Chapter 4 – Shards**

When Erin woke up the next day around noon, Garrett was no longer by her side. Sleepily rubbing her eyes, she turned around and looked for him.

When she spotted him, she almost gasped in shock. Quickly, she put her hands in front of her mouth to keep herself quiet.

Erin knew that Garrett trained his body with physical exercises, but she had never seen him do something like this.

Garrett, only dressed in his leather pants and soft boots, was doing a handstand on the thin wooden railing that separated the edge of his apartment under the clockwork from the gaping abyss of the clocktower's stairwell. He was turned in a way so that he didn't see her. His lean, muscular body shivered ever so slightly with the enormous tension that was necessary to keep him completely upright. Then, very slowly, Garret moved one leg and tilted over until he was standing on his feet again. Making a few elegant steps backwards, he went down on one knee, stretched out the other leg and made a roll forward on the railing, standing up again afterwards in one fluid motion, his arms outstretched.

Then he did something that stole her breath. Garrett made one, two very fast steps, jumped up and made a somersault in the air, landing just a little too far on the right side, and one of his feet slipped from the railing. Erin had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from making a noise, but by then Garrett had already managed to regain his balance by making another quick roll forward, turned and leapt elegantly to the side back into safety.

He stood for a moment to cool down, doing some stretching exercises of his legs and back, then turned around and strode over to her. He lifted his eyebrows when he saw that she was awake and the hint of a smile played around his lips.

"You almost slipped", Erin teased, even though she was deeply impressed. Garrett moved as gracefully as a ballerina. A ballerina with a _very_ appealing set of abdominal muscles. Erin had to bite her lip when she spotted a thin trickle of sweat rolling down his flat belly to disappear behind his belt.

"I did. And then I improvised", he came back. Garrett went over to the table with the bowl of rainwater, dipped a rag inside and quickly dabbed his neck, armpits and chest with the damp cloth. Then he combed his hair back, tied a string around some longer strands of his crown on the back of his head and continued to dress completely. Earlier, when Erin had first met him, Garrett had preferred his messy jet black hair close-cropped, but now it was a little longer, especially on his crown, and he had to brush it back to prevent it from blocking his vision. Erin had to admit that she really like his new hairstyle with the little ponytail, the way the strands shone on his crown like a raven's feathers. His hair was almost prettier than hers, she thought.

After a quick breakfast, they finally prepared their heist. Garrett routinely checked his bow and lockpicks, chose an assortment of arrows, carefully avoiding the lethal ones, as Erin noticed, stocked up on poppy and food and prepared bags for their loot. He shared his kohl with her and they both masked their eyes with pitch black shadows. Erin helped him here and there in his preparations, keeping quiet for most of the time since she felt that he was not in the mood for a chat. He was so taken up in the work that she feared she might disturb his deep concentration, since she could imagine that their first mutual heist since the accident was not only a test for her, but also for him.

"Ready?", Garrett finally asked, putting one foot on the window ledge and pulling the mask over his face. Erin tried to keep calm on the outside, but inwardly she did a dance of joy, not being able to avoid a daring little smirk. She had longed for this so badly.

"You bet."

They departed and went for the South Quarter to Erin's mill. Since they were moving not only in broad daylight but also Erin had nothing on but one of his old shirts, they had to take a route that was easily accessible as well as well hidden. Garrett chose a path that led mainly across the rooftops, sheltering them from eyes from below. At one point, Erin signaled him to wait.

"Trouble?", he asked immediately, casting glances left and right.

"No, it's just that I have a feeling this way here might be better", Erin suggested. She pointed to an old storehouse with a hipped roof to their left.

"The path I picked is good enough", Garrett replied.

"But the last time I went that way there was some problem. I remember that on the way back I chose a different path over the roof of that storehouse."

"And what was that problem?"

"I don't remember. But it was there", she insisted, a little embarrassed that she could not recall what it was. The path they were about to take had a hitch somewhere, she was sure.

Garrett regarded her for a moment. "We'll continue", he decided finally.

Erin wanted to reply something, but then made up her mind and instead followed the Master Thief in front of her. _Better not start an argument after less than an hour into our mission_.

After about the quarter of an hour of climbing and walking, they reached an open area that might have been where an aqueduct was once, but now there just was a wide gap between two old factory buildings, lined by spiked fences. The gap where the pipe had been going through was empty now, the aqueduct removed, and the windows of the nearby houses had been broken in a fire. Shards of glass were covering the place.

"That is not the problem you were talking about by any chance, is it?", Garrett asked.

"Yep, that was it." The field of broken glass, and the high, smooth walls of the factory buildings without any possibility to climb up or get around. Now she remembered. For a second she considered throwing Garrett a smug _I told you so_ – stare, but decided not to do so. He possibly had assumed that she had been trying to be rebellious and get her way, challenging his authority. Part of Erin felt insulted for this, but then, she could understand him perfectly.

 _That's just how I have been back then. Feels like an eternity ago, a different life…_

"Well… No turning back, we'd just lose precious time. We gotta get across there." He glanced down sidelong at her bare feet.

"A shame I'm not a bird", she commented.

Garrett sighed, turned to her and casually scooped her up in his arms. Erin made a surprised sound.

"If you make just one joke about some lady in distress, I'll punch you", she informed him, feeling a little hurt in her dignity. She was not the kind of woman that wanted to rely on some man to carry her on his hands like a spoiled princess. She was very proud of her independence, something that was by far not the common state for women in the City. _Even though it feels wonderful to lie in his arms_ , she thought.

Garrett just glanced down on her very briefly, one corner of his mouth showing the faintest hint of a sly smirk. Erin could almost _hear_ his thoughts, and of course he was thinking of a sarcastic joke. She rolled her eyes.

"What about your feet? Is your leather thick enough?", she asked.

"We'll see", Garett came back.

She saw that his right eye was glowing turquoise. He started jogging towards the field of shards with Erin cradled tightly in his arms.

Even though she fully trusted his skills, Erin was more than just a little worried for him. Garrett's strategy seemed to be based on making a lot of very carefully placed, but also very fast little steps and leaps, avoiding the sharp pieces of broken glass. As if he saw everything in slow motion, he made it to set his feet perfectly between the shards, using larger pieces as stepping stones. From time to time, a shard crumbled under his sole and she felt him flinch every time, but he did not stop his stride until they had reached the other end of the gap.

Garrett put her down carefully after having checked that the ground was clear again. Erin would not have minded to be carried around like this for a little while longer.

"No shards in your feet?", she asked.

Garrett made a few steps in place, flexing his feet in the soft, almost sock-like leather boots. "No."

"Well, then. Good job, thank you. Want to continue?"

Garrett just nodded and strode past her to take the lead. Erin wanted to follow, but suddenly he stopped and, without turning around, gazed back over his shoulder.

"The other path you suggested might have been better. You were right", he said quietly. Without awaiting her answer, he kept moving. Erin stood and stared for a heartbeat or two. Her stomach fluttered. Shaking her head, she ran to keep up with his pace.

Less than an hour later, they reached the mill. The afternoon sun began to turn a golden color that made the water that turned the wheel of the mill glitter and sparkle. A lot of mixed feelings flooded through Erin's mind when she saw her old hideout. The largest part of her was very happy to be back in what she considered her home, but she dared not to think about what might be going through Garrett's mind right now.

Apparently he remembered where to get in and soon pressed his hand on the secret stone in the wall that opened a passage inside the mill.

"Ladies first", Garrett said, leaning against the wall. He knew perfectly well that Erin hated to be called a Lady, but she just shot him a warning glance mixed with a sour smile, crawled in and waited for him to follow.

"Careful, there's some traps in here", she reminded him.

"I know."

 _Oh. Of course he does._ Erin hurried to get inside, the familiar smells filling her with memories galore. Everything was just as she left it, open books she had been reading, a half-emptied wine bottle, piles of blankets, boxes and tools scattered over the tables. She went past her working bench and ran a finger across the surface. It was covered in dust, the only proof that she hadn't been here for over a year. It felt surreal.

Then she suddenly remembered all her paintings and hastily ran in her sleeping room to stash them away. _Shards of her past…_ She knew that Garrett had already seen them, but her shame about this was still sitting deeply. While she hurriedly piled the paintings together, she didn't notice that Garrett had followed her quick and quietly as a ghost. All of a sudden, he was leaning against her desk, a sheet of paper in hand, studying it intently. When she peeked over the edge she saw that it was a rough movement sketch of Garrett, drawn with a piece of graphite, showing in three consecutive poses how he swung himself across a beam.

Erin blushed heavily and stretched out a hand to take it away from him. Garrett quickly made a step to the side, avoiding her grab.

"Give it back. It's all bad and embarrassing, I know." Garrett ignored her and made another step away from her, not taking his eyes from the drawing. Erin sighed, burning with shame.

"I should get rid of all of them…", she said quietly.

To her surprise, Garrett looked up and said: "You should not."

"No?"

He shook his head, staring at the drawing again. She watched puzzled how he carefully traced the lines she had drawn with his index finger. "You should continue with this. And make a lot more."

Erin was completely lost.

"You have a great talent for this", Garrett explained. "The way you observe and register details, and later put them on paper… It is a very good exercise. First you train your eyes to see what is really there, the way the world behaves, and later you challenge your memory, your observation, to picture it. Handling the brush will also enhance the dexterity of your hands." He looked up and handed her the drawing. Erin quickly grabbed it and hid it behind her back. "I'd really suggest you to continue your art."

She was speechless.

"Do you like them?", she managed to whisper.

Garrett's gaze travelled over the paintings she had not yet come to hide. They all showed him in different poses and situations, wielding his bow, holding loot, running over the rooftops.

"Maybe you could try a new motif every now and then", he suggested. Then Garrett walked over to a painting that had taken her ages to finish. It was done in oil, dominated by shades of dark blue and light grey that contrasted with the black silhouettes of the buildings. It showed the Master Thief perched on a roof ridge, hidden in the shadow of a passing cloud, watching the moonlit City down below like a silent bird of prey. A small smile stretched his lips as Garrett let his fingers trail along the edges of his clocktower far in the background. "I like this one."

"… Thanks."

"May I keep it?"

Erin didn't trust her ears. "Yes, sure", she finally said. Garrett took the painting and carefully rolled the canvas, tied it with a string and placed it in his loot bag. Then he turned around and looked at her.

Even though he didn't say anything, Erin felt like a great source of tension between them had been released. That he had asked her for a painting as a gift felt like a forgiveness to her, a forgiveness for all the confusion between them and his willingness to accept her feelings, even if he might not return them. She crossed the gap between Garrett and her and threw her arms around him, and a few heartbeats later Garrett returned her embrace. Slowly inhaling to calm herself, she pressed her head against his neck. She felt his fingers comb through her hair and up her neck, and then he placed two fingers under her chin and lifted it up until she was looking at him. Garrett brought his face closer to hers and gently rubbed his nose against her cheek, and then his lips touched hers.

They stood kissing in the middle of Erin's mill for a long while. Erin quietly enjoyed the taste of his tongue curled against hers, feeling his warm breath on her lips, the prickly feeling of his unshaved skin. Garrett's hands dug in her hair, travelled south to caress her back and finally ended up on her buttocks, squeezing them gently and at the same time gathering the cloth of her shirt until he could lift the hem up. Feeling what he was doing, Erin helped by pulling the shirt over her head and tossing it aside, standing in front of him only dressed in her skin.

Garrett's differently colored eyes travelled over her naked form. His face was not giving away what he was feeling when he did so, but she could see by the way his hands tensed that he longer to touch her.

"Should I not find myself some gear so we can move on?", Erin asked with a lopsided smile, not sure what he was going to do. Instead of an answer, Garrett embraced her again and cupped her face in one hand, brushing his thumb across her lips, while the other delved between her thighs.

Erin gasped with surprise and clutched his back as she felt the waves of pleasing tingles radiating from her womanhood. Moaning softly, she was once more impressed about how nimble his fingers where, deep inside her and still gently but firmly massaging that sweet spot at the same time.

"Garrett… We are losing time!", she breathed.

"Depends on how quickly I'm done with you", he came back, his quiet voice a husky whisper. Erin, shivering with lust, kissed him and pulled down his hood to caress his hair. She undid the leather strap and loosened the strands, running her fingers firmly through his hair and across his scalp. Garrett seemed to enjoy it, placing his head on her shoulder and closing his eyes. He made a sound of pleasure that almost sounded like a purr, a deep, low rumble erupting from his throat. Erin bit her lip at that amazingly beautiful sound, feeling her desire rising and rising with every little move his fingers made, stimulating her in just the right places as if he could read her mind. As if he was picking a lock…

Shortly after, Erin felt her climax approaching and clutched his back, shivering and moaning. Garrett stopped the motion of his hand a second before she came. It felt like torture.

"Please, don't stop, please Garrett…", she begged him breathlessly, but Garrett just placed a finger on her lips.

"Look at me", he ordered softly. Erin obeyed, looking in his bicolored eyes, the turquoise one with the scar branching across one half of his face glowing against the black kohl. The dance of his fingers in the centre of her heat continued, now at a faster pace, every little stroke making her feel like she was bursting with tension. Moaning his name one last time, Erin was finally overwhelmed by her lust, climaxing with a powerful, shuddering orgasm.

Garrett continued his caresses until she stopped panting. The look on his face was somewhere between his usual stern glare and an almost mischievous little smirk, one corner of his mouth curled up. He looked like he was proud. Erin thought that he had every right to be, it had taken him mere minutes to make her come.

"Seems like after all you _can_ follow orders if I just ask nicely", he remarked.

"Shut up, dirty taffer!", she whispered, placing a soft kiss on his lips. "What about you?"

"Not now. It just wanted to see your face while… you know. We got to hurry", he said. A little disappointed, Erin cast a glance down his harness and actually saw a bulge behind the leather that protected his crotch. She pointed. "Doesn't that hurt?"

"It's a little tight", he admitted with a sour smile. "But it's alright. As I said, we should hurry."

Erin went over to a chest and started rummaging around in it for something that would cover her body. She found old pants that still fit her and a more or less intact shirt, fingerless leather gauntlets, a black scarf, boots and a set of belts. She even found an old blackjack. All of it should be enough to act as a simple protection against the world around her, even if it didn't fit that well. Better than being almost naked.

Her gaze fell on Garrett's shirt that he had tossed aside before his little overture, and she really hoped he would not pick it up. If she came to spend the days in her mill again, she'd love to have something with her that smelled like him. To her mild embarrassment, Garrett saw her glance, his eyes flicking down to the shirt for the fraction of a second, but he didn't comment it nor did he pick it up.

"Alright, better than nothing, I guess. What do you think? Can we leave?", she asked him.

Garrett, his arms crossed in front of his chest, gave her a long look. "Take this. Then we'll go."

Her eyes went wide with surprise when Garrett handed Erin something.

It was her old claw.

He had made his own one for climbing, she knew, but this was just the very same claw he had taken from her before the accident. The reason why she fell. The claw he had saved her with on the _Dawn's Light_ , before she had left him. It was hard to judge from his stern expression what he was feeling when he handed it over to Erin, but the way his knitted brow relaxed when she took it from his hands told her that Garrett still felt guilty, and that he hoped this gesture might be a symbol for their mutual forgiveness. He used to tell her that the claw was holding her back, she remembered, that it made her resort to violence more easily. The Thief had considered it a weakness of her technique, something that actually had endangered him as well as her.

Erin did not want to be his weakness.

She wanted to show him that she could do better than this, that she deserved his respect. Garrett knew now what she felt for him, and even if he didn't return her feelings, he was willing to give her another chance and that was a dream come true for Erin – not even considering the intimate aspects of their reunion, which was something she had so desperately longed for it had threatened to tear her apart. She would not disappoint him. Erin took the claw from his hands, attached it to her belt and followed Garrett out of her mill on their way to Auldale.


	5. Chapter 5 - Birds and Bulldogs

A/N: And here we go, Chapter 5. I am having so much fun writing this and so far I'm planning to make it a self-contained story with 11 chapters total, maybe even more. So, no worries, I'm going to post quite some more chapters ;).

I'm very happy about all kinds of support and I'd really like to know what you, dear readers, think about this. Let me know what you liked and disliked, only that way I can improve my writing! A little more detailed critique would mean a lot to me! Enjoy :3

* * *

 **Chapter 5 - Birds and bulldogs**

Garrett hopped elegantly from one roof to the next, Erin following close behind. The sun was setting behind the horizon of the City and a convenient shroud of evening mist began to rise between the crooked alleyways and old cobblestone streets, covering the rooftops in a white haze that helped to keep the two Thieves hidden. Garrett focused on a roof a level higher, hacked his claw in an iron grate and pulled himself up, waiting for Erin. When she arrived next to him, he indicated her to wait.

"You still make too much noise when you use your claw", he remarked, hoping that she would not take it as an insult. It was meant to be constructive. "Try pulling it towards you when it hits the surface instead of just ramming it in. When you pull, your own bodyweight will do the work for you and it'll be much quieter."

Erin frowned shortly, but she did not object. "Next time I'll try it like that."

Garrett nodded and they continued. He tried to choose a path that held a few more opportunities for them to use the claw. After he had sent a rope arrow flying into a wooden beam of an old inn far above them, he climbed up and used his claw to drag himself over the gable on the roof. Quietly admiring the for once peaceful craggy silhouette of the City in the buttery light of the evening, he waited to Erin. After the riots and the chaos of the past months, calmness after the storm had taken hold of the City, and sometimes it looked quite beautiful. _Even a mud puddle looks beautiful when you cover it with mist_ , he thought, but still he enjoyed the view sometimes.

This time, Erin made it with a lot less noise. "Much better", Garrett commented when she stood next to him. She grinned and gave him a playful punch on the arm before they continued.

The mansion of Thadeus Harlan, better known as the Thief Taker General, was located in Auldale, the fanciest and most expensive part of the City. The vast, park-like premises were all surrounded by heavy iron-studded fences or marble walls and filled with guards and watchmen, full of expensive statues, columns and fountains, and the large mansions there resembled small palaces, all of their owners trying to boast their wealth. A place that Garrett _loved_ to visit.

They snuck over the bridge to Auldale just when it was turning dark, most of the lamps still being out of order due to the riots, and soon found themselves in broad alleys that separated the premises. Garrett signaled Erin to follow him into the shadows and they prowled closer to a spiked iron fence.

"I believe this is our dear Thadeus' mansion. Can you remember any details?", he asked. Erin squinted at the vast garden and the towering mansion in the middle, at least what could be seen behind the gates and columns.

"My memories are a little muddy, but I think it is the right one. That huge statue over there of the Thief Taker General posing on a pile of corpses is kind of giving it away."

Garrett looked. "Charming."

Satisfied that they had found the right place, he used his claw to climb up one of the stone pillars that held up the fence and perched on top of it, Erin taking the one to his left. Watching quietly like two buzzards, they observed the mansion's premise. To Garrett's disappointment, all of the visible windows were barred with massive iron grids. In the garden down below some guards were patrolling the area, some gardeners busied themselves with the very scarce number of perfectly cropped little boxwoods and he also noticed a few cages of very unfriendly looking bulldogs. The garden was rather empty, well lit with lanterns and headlights and very geometrical, which was bad since it offered little opportunities to hide behind.

 _So many gardeners with so little to take care of…_ _They must have quite a boring time. See if we can change that._

"No chance with the windows, I'm afraid. Let's split up and take a stroll around the mansion to see if the backside looks more promising. You go left. We'll meet on the other side of the garden", Garrett suggested.

Erin tipped her index finger against her brow to indicate him that she had understood, jumped down the pillar and started prowling along the fence. Garrett went the other way. He had to admit to himself that he was indeed a little worried that Erin might run into an ugly confrontation with a guard. Frowning, he forced himself to put a little more trust in her and focused on his own task. While he carefully strode along the fence, ducked and all senses awake, he scanned the building for any inviting opportunities to get in. Sadly, the large main entrance seemed to be the only opening that was not covered with thick steel bars, and of course that was just the place where a whole pile of guards were standing. Some windows on the very backside had no bars, but they were so far up that they couldn't reach them. These could serve as a handy way out, he mused, but not as a way in. Garrett already started looking for sewer entrances, something that he only considered when there was no other way than getting wet, but then something else caught his attention.

 _Yes… A bit risky, but it might work. But I need Erin for this…_

They met behind the mansion. Apparently, she had not run into trouble. Yet.

"Anything useful?", Garrett asked.

She shook her head. "Just bars, nothing we can crack open. Some windows on the back of the building are unbarred, but they are too far up to reach them in any way. There's a sewer cover, you know…"

"I guess we can avoid that. I think I have an idea, but the timing needs to be just right, and I'll need you to do something quite risky. Are you in?"

"Do you really have to ask?"

Garrett explained his plan to Erin. A few minutes later, they split up again, Garrett vanishing behind one of the few rows of trimmed boxwood in the shadows. While he waited for his opportunity, he craned his neck to look after Erin. He spotted her silhouette on the other side of the garden as she gracefully snuck up to a bulldog that was held in a small kennel. He could not hear her, but he assumed that she was gently talking to the dog, for the beast stood up and opened its snout, but it didn't bark. Erin stretched out a hand and pushed something between the bars of the kennel.

Garrett was passed by the guard that he had been waiting for. When the crossbow man walked past the Thief, he stretched out a hand and reached for the man's belt. This time, though, Garrett did not steal anything, he _attached_ something, carefully making sure that the guard didn't notice the additional weight on his belt. His part done, Garrett stood up, made a quick roll to escape the light of a lantern and slipped into a cupboard to hide. By now, Erin should have made it to calm the dog with some of the dried meat they had brought with them. If everything went right, the guard Garrett had reverse-pickpocketed should have reached the other side of the garden now and continued his patrol around the building to the backside.

 _Almost…_

A gardener went towards the cupboard and Garrett tensed. If Erin didn't initiate the next step now, the gardener would spot him and alarm the guards, and fifteen men with crossbows and lances were nothing he wanted to deal with.

When Garrett heard loud barking, he got ready to go. He peeked through the slightly opened doors of the cupboard and saw the bulldog that Erin had just freed from its cage running ferociously barking behind the guard whose belt Garrett had equipped… with dried meat. The guard, oblivious to this, should be behind the building by now when the excited dog came running for him and for the treat he was carrying around on his belt.

All the other guards were drawing their weapons, shouted orders and followed the dog behind the building, assuming the animal had spotted an intruder and not knowing that it was one of their own colleagues that had caused the beast to bark.

Within all this confusion, Garrett got out of the cupboard unseen just in time before the gardener reached it and ran to the front door that was now left pleasingly unguarded. Erin was already waiting for him, her hands on the lock. A few seconds later, they both got in and carefully closed the door behind them. Inside, a wide, austere vestibule dimly lit with iron chandeliers awaited them, two staircases winding up to the left and right of another statue of Thadeus Harlan. _How pretentious could you possibly get?_ , Garrett thought.

Garrett signaled Erin to follow him and they both slipped into a slim corridor to their right, which ended in a tiny store room for the domestic staff. Here, they took a moment to collect themselves.

The room was little more than a broom closet, and it was quite narrow. Garrett and Erin were forced to stand very close to each other, and Garrett found that he didn't mind. Chasing away some vaguely indecent thoughts erupting spontaneously in his mind, he focused on listening to any sounds around them, trying to get a feeling for the dimensions of the building.

"That was a pretty good idea", Erin whispered. Her blue eyes glittered in the murky shadows of the store room.

Garrett smiled. "You did well."

"Why did _I_ have to try and calm that monster of a bulldog?", she wanted to know. "Normally it's you who insists on doing the most dangerous parts himself."

"Because attaching something to a walking man's belt is way harder than taking something away. You add weight instead of relieving it. Keeping the balance is crucial, and I also had to attach the meat in a way that the dog could easily get it out so that the other guards won't find it."

"And you think that would have been too hard for me?", she asked. Garrett just raised one eyebrow. She might be excellent at the basics, but extremely delicate matters like this were something they still needed to practice. Erin seemed to get what he was thinking.

"Well… You might be right."

"I admit that experience has shown that whenever I sneak up on a dog and tell him he's a good boy, he doesn't believe me", Garrett added. Which was true. Dogs seemed to be able to smell his profession; he had never met one that liked him and that feeling was mutual. He was glad Erin had taken care of that. She snickered.

"So, do we go and have some fun?", she asked teasingly. Garrett sighed. He wished she would take this more seriously, but, he had to admit, he also looked forward to what they were about to do. He would enjoy this.

Garrett pulled up his mask and they left the store room. Back in the vestibule, they chose the staircase on the right, quietly sneaking up to the gallery. After quickly checking the outgoing doors and corridors and finding them empty, they took out their loot bags and started to sack the first half of the upper floor. A bureau, a room with some uncomfortable looking chairs and a fire, a kitchen and a small library (that contained such a small number of books that it made Garrett wonder whether the Thief Taker General could read or not) were meticulously scanned for anything valuable. Together they harvested a mass of cups, golden pencils, letter openers, vases and another painting of Montonessi, much to Garrett's delight.

He was standing in front of the fire and admired the flamboyant motive, a ball of nobles in magnificent dresses, the most prominent guest being a young lady with the head of a falcon. She stood out from all the other colorful bird-people due to her somber stare, dressed all in black lace. The backside showed the title _Beauty's Possibly Deadly Talons_ , written with a yellow substance Garrett didn't want to think about. He stored the painting in his bag and turned to look after Erin. She was currently happily filling her bag with silver cutlery a room further east, he could see through a half-open door.

Suddenly, Garrett heard a sound. Erin had not noticed it. He carefully peeked around a corner to see a guard walk around in the nearby corridor, his weapon drawn. The guard seemed to be not too alarmed, at least not enough to call for his colleagues, wherever they might be, but still he seemed to be willing to check the rooms the two Thieves had just sacked.

Garrett made a decision.

He picked up a chunk of coal and tossed it against a wall close to the guard, so that he would hear the noise. The guard made an alerted sound, ducked his head a started prowling towards the room Erin was in. Trying to sneak and making even more stomping noises than before, the guard went through the door. Garrett waited, straining his ears.

 _I hope I won't regret this…_

In the other room, he heard Erin slip behind a cover. The guard's voice said: "Come out and show yourself! I know you're he…"

A muffled blow was to be heard, and just after that something heavy hit the carpet.

Garrett went into the room. A memory spooked around in his mind, the sight of a guard that had managed to get past them, attacking Garrett from behind. Erin, trying to help him, slitting the guard's throat open with her dagger instead of using her blackjack. It was the day they first parted ways, the day he got so disappointed by her aggressive behavior that he sent her away.

But this time…

The guard was lying on the ground, unconscious, but alive. Erin stood next to him, her blackjack in her hand.

"Are you alright?"

She nodded.

"Good. Let's pick him up and put him somewhere so he has time to sleep this off." Garrett bent down, grabbed the guard by the armpits and started to drag him back into a murky corner. Erin didn't move. Garrett stopped in his motion and looked up at her.

"You did that on purpose. As a test for me."

 _I guess I_ am _going to regret this…_

He just nodded, standing upright. "Not the most sensible way of doing that. Sorry if I insulted you."

Erin sighed, avoiding his gaze. Apparently she knew exactly what he had been thinking of, how she had killed that guard back then, and that he wanted to test her if she could do better even in an unprepared situation. Wordlessly, she walked towards him, her arms crossed. After a short hesitation, she leaned against Garrett's body. He embraced her.

"I can do better."

"I see."

Erin unfolded her arms and returned the embrace. "I guess it'll take me a little while longer to show you that I really want to change?"

Garrett nodded. It would take time to make up for all the things she had done. "So far, you are doing well." She looked up at him, a small smile playing around her lips. He couldn't help but smile as well. "Just keep this up."

Erin cast him a determined look, her eyes full of the blue fire he had so often seen on her when she was excited, pressed a quick kiss on his cheek and turned to the guard. Together they dragged him in a quiet corner and went over to the gallery to take a closer look at the other half of the upper floor. Apparently, they were coming closer to the more private areas of the mansion. While the previous rooms all looked like the Thief Taker General might use them to receive visitors and discuss political issues, the other parts were even more plain and unadorned than the rooms they had already seen.

 _The interior is as bald as the General's head_ , Garrett mused.

There were two pesky servants and three guards that had to be taken care of, and Erin arranged the guards on a flatbed so that it looked like they were spooning.

"You still love doing that, don't you?", Garrett asked amused, remembering all the times she had had her fun imagining how the guards would react when they woke up snuggled together. Erin snickered dirtily. "Never gets old."

The Thief Taker General's personal study proved to be much more promising. The murky, large room was dominated by a plain desk in the middle, the stone walls were covered with bulletin boards. A note on the desk said _Dinner w Lord P., tonight_. Erin pointed.

"That's where he is right now."

Garrett strode around the room and warily took a closer look at the walls. They were covered with newspaper snippets, wanted posters, orders, copies of lists, maps of the City with red circles around certain places and sketches of buildings. It looked like the room of a man who had nothing in his life but his work, always concentrating on punishing the City's criminals, hunting them relentlessly, all thoughts focused on that task alone.

 _Just like me, but the other way around…_ , Garrett thought, smiling sourly.

As if Erin had read his mind, she commented: "He kind of is your counterpart, isn't he? But the opposite. The other side of the coin. He thinks he's the hero and you're the bad guy."

"I'm no hero."

"I know", Erin said. "But you're Garrett."

He didn't know what to reply to that, so he continued to study the walls. Erin busied herself with ridding the General of his collection of golden pencils when Garrett's Primal eye noticed a hidden switch on the wall.

He pressed it.

A wall slid aside and revealed another bulletin board hidden behind it. Erin stopped when she heard the wall move and slowly walked over to the Thief, who was staring at the wall.

The wall was covered in pictures of Garrett.

There were wanted posters, newspaper reports, notes from Basso and the other criminals that regularly worked with Garrett, drawings of his arrows, interviews with robbed noblemen, bank heist protocols, maps with pins indicating places he had been active in and composite sketches of his face. Most of the pinned papers had been commented by the General in his own tidy handwriting, and some were connected with red yarn, forming a complex network.

"Wow…", Erin commented. She looked over at Garrett, who just stared at the wall.

"What exactly did you do again to deserve such an amount of attention?"

"Back at Northcrest manor, when I tried to save you… I jumped and tossed the claw up to stop my fall, and I accidentally hit the General's leg with it. It had to be amputated. For some reason, since then he's been a little cross with me", Garrett said, his eyes still wandering over all the notes the General had collected on the Master Thief.

"You also never paid your blacktax, didn't you?"

"You can't tax what you can't catch." Garrett turned to her. "Also, the Thief Taker General has been trying to get hold of me for so long I can't even remember when it started. The rarer the prey, the more eager the hunter. Do you remember the ritual in the hidden city?"

She shook her head. Garrett explained.

"Orion took you away and when I tried to follow, the Thief Taker General hindered me. We had a little dance together and in the end, I left him with even less dignity and some empty pockets."

"You could have stopped it there and then?", Erin asked quietly. Garrett looked away.

"I don't know." Casting her a careful glance, he added: "I should have killed him when I had the chance, but I couldn't make myself do it. He was helpless. It would have been murder."

Her face was not giving away whether she thought that Garrett had made a mistake with keeping the General alive. She crossed her arms and cocked her head, then smiled.

"You just did what you thought was the right thing. Maybe it was not the smartest choice, but it was yours. On the other hand, though, since you know this zealot here…" Erin indicated the collection of snippets with her thumb. "… So very well and always managed to escape him, it might actually be a good idea to keep him in his office. You know the way he thinks and you can predict his every move. If he gets a successor that behaves totally differently, we all might get in trouble. If the City keeps him, you can keep him on a short leash like you always have."

Garrett's lips curled into a lopsided smile. "Nice thought."

Erin smiled back and continued to sack the room, turning to a large chest that said _Evidence_. Garrett started to pick the papers from the wall, one by one, starting with the drawings of his face.

"I found my equipment!"

Garrett turned to Erin. She stood over the chest excitedly and produced her old equipment bit by bit. "It's all a little stuffy, but no moths or stains. I even got my necklace back, see?" She happily held up a long necklace made of a number of spherical turquoises.

Garrett remembered that the necklace had been the first thing she had stolen on their very first heist together. It wasn't even very valuable or rare and quite clumsy, and he had often teased her with that, asked her why she didn't replace it with something more elaborate. Now he understood why Erin liked it so much.

 _It's not about how much you steal, it's about what you steal. And how you steal it…_

Garrett shot her a sidelong glance, smiling vaguely. A lesson she had always taken to heart without him noticing, he realized now.

"Let's move your things into a different room so you can change. But before, I have something left to do here…", Garrett said.

"And what?"

Wordless, Garrett continued to pick the newspaper snippets and drawings from the wall. After a while, Erin joined him. They piled the papers that contained every single clue the Thief Taker General had collected on Garrett in the middle of the stone floor in a metal paper bin. Garrett drew his bow, nocked a fire arrow and sent it flying into the paper, where it burst into flames and consumed the maps, the wanted posters, the drawings of the Master Thief, and turned it into ashes.

They watched in silence until the fire had eaten every little piece of paper. Then they put the bin away again.

"I think that our Mr. Harlan is going to experience a little setback in his research", Erin remarked. Garrett nodded. He walked over to the switch and pressed it so that the wall slid back over the now empty bulletin board like nothing happened.

Erin went over to the only other door in the General's study and peeked through the keyhole. "It's his sleeping chamber."

Deciding that the chance of encountering a guard in the General's private sleeping chamber was way smaller than encountering one in his office, Garrett and Erin picked the lock and got in. The room was just as Garrett had it expected to look like: a small and windowless chamber with empty walls, just a few shelves full of arrows and weapons, a cupboard and a nightstand with some medicine vials and, as he noticed, a half empty bottle of whiskey. Nothing that hinted the presence of a person with such follies as interests in art or hobbies. The only light came from a small fireplace still filled with softly glowing coals. The most prominent object in the room was a very large four-poster bed that might have had curtains once, but they had been removed.

Garrett indicated Erin to check the other door he had spotted. She peeked through the keyhole. "It leads back to the corridor we came through."

Garrett slowly walked around in his most fervent pursuer's chamber while Erin carefully laid out her equipment on the bed to see if anything was missing. The Thief Taker General considered Garrett his sworn enemy, every single day of his life spent to plan his bloody vendetta on the Master Thief, the one he could never catch. Garrett did not hold such a grudge against the General, however. He had better things to do in his life. Garrett was not striving to kill him, or take revenge for all the other Thieves the General had hung. Feeling responsible for other peoples' fates was strange to Garrett, and he didn't consider other Thieves his colleagues either. Mild competition, at most. Garrett didn't steal to live like they did, he lived to steal. But, he realized now, he sometimes enjoyed the game of cat and mouse the General and him had been playing for so long. It was a special kind of challenge since the Thief Taker General was fanatically obsessed with him, as he had learned just now.

Erin interrupted his thoughts. "Good, my old equipment is complete, and ready to use." She noticed his thoughtful expression. "Think about your nemesis again?"

Garrett nodded.

"How would you like it if we play him a little trick?", Erin suggested. "Like, untidy his things a bit."

"I guess burning all the information he has collected on me could already be considered a _little trick_ ", Garrett came back. "By the way, leaving a mess is not our way."

"Got something less messy in mind?"

Garrett thought for a second. Somehow, the idea started to intrigue him. "Nothing obvious. Something subtle, something that he can't really point his finger at, but knows it's there, or at least believes that it's there. Something that bothers him unconsciously…" Garrett walked over to Erin, letting his eyes wander across the scarce furniture. "The General always claimed that he can smell Thieves. He says I'm a dirty rat and I smell like one, and that he can sense my presence."

Garrett looked at Erin. Almost simultaneously, they turned their heads towards the General's large bed.

"What do you think would he say if his bed smelled like rats all of a sudden?", Erin asked slowly.

Garrett didn't answer, he was already tossing his cloak away and pressed his lips against hers, pushing her backwards on the bed.

* * *

Inwardly, Erin was doing a dance of joy. Garrett stripped her in the blink of an eye, tossing her spare equipment aside, while she busied herself with his harness. Getting all the little laces open was always the trickiest part, she had learned, but she enjoyed undressing him, uncovering his lean body under the black leather bit by bit. Fervently kissing her, Garrett placed himself over her, letting his warm tongue trail over her breasts and up her neck, drawing a quiet moan from her lips. Erin had made it to unlace the harness and helped him take off his wrist guards and the canvas shirt, not being able to wait another moment to press herself against his naked upper body. Garrett had been sweating from the long tour across the City to their destination, and she found that he smelled more than enticing, his usual earthy scent of leather, sweat and something indescribable more wild and intense than ever. Erin wanted to strip him further, get him fully naked to admire the pale, lean beauty of his body, but before she could turn to his pants and belts he slipped a hand between her thighs. It took all her self control to keep from crying with pleasure when his fingers entered her. Both their breathing was going quick and flat, the chill of the room forgotten. Erin opened Garrett's pants far enough to make some space for his arousal. Her gentle but firm caresses eased down the Thief's mandible instantly and husky groans escaped his throat while he was shivering with pleasure. Erin bent down and hungrily licked the fine trickles of sweat from his pronounced abdominal muscles. A jolt of heat filled her when he moaned her name, his eyes clouded with lust, the turquoise one glowing softly.

Not able to wait any longer, she turned him around and placed herself on his lap in one fluid motion. Surprised, Garrett blinked up at Erin, suddenly lying under her, but when she pressed her hips against his manhood, rubbing her own heat against him, his eyes closed and he laid his head back, moaning again. He was still wearing his pants and soft boots, but they were not hindering them in what they did. Erin eased herself down on Garrett, allowing him to enter her while he stared into her eyes all the while, panting softly. He righted himself up a little, using one arm to support himself while the other gently caressed her face, wandering down her neck and breasts, over her belly until it reached her thighs. When Erin started moving on him, his hand tensed and she felt his fingernails dig in the soft skin. Breathing his name, Erin leant forward until her forehead touched his and continued to wind and roll her hips against his erection.

Garrett had always been much noisier than her the last times they had shared a bed, and it wasn't any different this time. He responded to her movements by winding his own abdomen against hers, a low rumble escaping his chest. Not that she didn't like that, on the contrary. Hearing his normally very husky, composed voice tremble when he moaned was the most beautiful sound she knew. But right now, she was a little worried that they might be heard, despite her own desire.

"Shhhhh, you are too loud!", she whispered against his wet temple. Garrett bit his lip. "Can't help it", he mouthed before she felt his hips thrust against hers again and he moaned once more. "Garrett, be quiet!", she tried again.

Then Erin heard somebody move outside the chamber.

Heavy footsteps strode along the stone corridor and ended up in front of the other side of the door, right across the bed.

Garrett and Erin immediately froze in their motion. She could see the shadows of two pairs of boots in the thin strip of light under the door. Erin quickly pressed a hand on Garrett's mouth, begging him silently to keep quiet. Garrett's eyes were wide open and he stared at the door, not making a move.

"Did you hear anything in there?", a male voice that probably belonged to a guard asked.

"I thought so. Strange, I'm sure I heard something."

"I thought the old grouch was away with Lord Pyne to discuss political stuff?"

"Well, that's what I heard too. Maybe he's come back earlier and we didn't notice on our patrol in the cellar. Step aside, let's take a look just to make sure."

A key creaked in the lock. Erin felt Garrett tense under her, but before he could flip around and shove them both under the bed, she had a sudden inspiration.

"Oh _yes_ General, right there!", she moaned loudly. "I've been a bad, bad girl, Mr. Thief Taker! Punish me! _Yes_!"

The door handle stopped moving. Erin strained her ears to hear what the guards were saying. They spoke again, but more quiet this time.

"Seems like he is back after all, and not alone", one guard remarked. "Let's go."

"That old pervert… Wait, can't we peek a little? The girl sounded nice."

"Shhh, of course not, idiot! If he catches wind that we were here when he had one of Xiao-Xiao's girls over, he'll put a crossbow between your eyes faster than you can fart! Come on, let's go."

"Oh, come on, just a quick look…"

"Yes General, punish me! Put me into chains as I deserve it!", Erin cried out again, hoping that these two lackwits wouldn't dare to peek through the keyhole.

"Ew… Dammit, let's leave."

"… Alright."

They heard the guards disappear. Erin kept pressing her hand on Garrett's mouth until she was sure that they were far out of earshot. Then she finally released the breath she had been holding, calming herself. When she gazed down at Garrett, he was staring up at her with an expression that mixed great respect with utter disgust.

She grinned. "Sorry, I couldn't think of a better way to keep them from coming in here. And believe me, I'm just as disgusted as you." She shuddered. "Gross…"

"I actually am very impressed by your excellent presence of mind", he replied. "And a little worried about your convincing performance."

Erin punched his arm playfully. "Shut up, taffer. It's because of your noise that we almost got caught red-handed." She cast him a seductive smile, arching her back and lifting her arms over her head so he could admire the curves of her torso. "Want to continue where we left off?"

Garrett had grown a little soft, she felt. She could well imagine why. He smiled back. "If you can get those images out of my head…"

She could. Snickering, Erin bent down and rubbed her breasts against his face and chest, moving her hips. She felt his hot tongue flick across her skin like a flame. Garrett embraced her, his nimble hands roaming over her rear and thighs as if he was looking for a hidden switch, gently guiding her movements while at the same time letting her take the lead. Moments later, Erin felt his arousal throb inside her again. Garrett gazed up at her, his bicolored eyes glittering under his dark eyebrows, his beautifully curved lips slightly open. They became one again, the interruption forgotten, just skin pressing on skin, quick breathing and hungry kisses and fingernails scratching across each others' backs as their rhythm became faster. Another loud moan escaped Garrett's throat, and Erin gently placed one hand on his lips to muffle his sounds. She tilted her head back and enjoyed the feeling of his manhood deep inside her for a moment, until she felt something wet against her palm. When she peeked down, not stopping her movements to keep up her ever rising heat, she saw that Garrett was licking her hand, eyes closed with bliss. Erin remembered his passionate fascination of hands, and she allowed him to kiss and lick it as it seemed to enhance his pleasure massively. He used one arm to push himself a bit upright and with the other he held Erin's hand in front of his face, rubbing his lips against her soft palm. Erin complied, letting her fingers dance along his jawline. Garrett groaned with pleasure again, casting her a longing glance. His eyes burned with desire, moments away from his breaking point and desperately trying to keep himself quiet, and she rolled her hips against his at an even faster pace. Her name a breathless whisper on his lips, Garrett tilted his head back and closed his eyes. Erin quickly bent over him and caught his mouth with hers, gently muffling his husky moans as Garrett climaxed, clenching the blanket in his fists and squirming with tension, looking incredibly beautiful as he did. She held herself back until she felt his seed inside her, his trembling subsiding, then she allowed herself to come, arching her back and surrendering to the powerful rush of sensations.

Erin slowly rolled her hips until she felt the last aftershock of her orgasm fade away to be replaced by utter satisfaction. She gazed down at Garrett, who lay under her with his arms sprawled out, gasping for breath. Sweat was running down his temples and his black hair was a hopeless mess, but when he opened his eyes, a slow smile stretched his lips.

Then he did something that quite stole her breath. Erin had never really heard him laugh out loud. It was part of Garrett's aloof nature to express his feelings in a very subtle, composed and mostly sarcastic manner, avoiding any kind of overreaction. Now, Garrett also didn't actually laugh, but a soft, deep chuckle rumbled in his chest. Combined with his smile and the way his eyes shone, it was the most wonderful reward for Erin. With a touched smile, she bent down and kissed him, feeling his hands comb through her short messy hair.

"That was risky", Garrett remarked finally.

"I thought you said risk is a good thing?", Erin came back. She lifted herself up from his lap and stretched out next to him. A thin, milky trickle of his seed ran down her thigh and left a small puddle on the sheets. Garrett rolled on his side as well.

"I didn't say it wasn't good, did I?", he replied. "The guards suddenly being here certainly was an unlucky coincidence, but again… You made it to improvise. Good."

Garrett pressed a long kiss on her lips, then he got up and got dressed again. Erin noticed that they had left more than one wet spot on the sheets, but she assumed they would dry without leaving a trace. She dressed as well and tried to smooth out the crumpled sheet as good as she could.

"Here", Garrett said. "Take one." He offered her the bag of Lady's mantle.

"Thanks, but not necessary. Got my own bag."

The look he gave her suggested that he was very well aware of the fact that she had hoped for their little liaison to happen, and, more importantly, that he had hoped the same, which was a very promising observation. Garrett seemed to have looked forward to their heist as well as to the other matter. Erin threw him a knowing smirk, which made him look away.

"Let's take care of the large room on the backside of the building and leave", Garrett said. "It's getting late, our bags are almost full and I don't want to run into our dear General in here."

"Alright."

Garrett got ready to open the door, but before he did, he carefully checked the corridor through the keyhole, his turquoise eye glowing. Grabbing the handle, he turned his head back to her once more.

"Sorry for the noise", he said quietly. "Can't help it."

Erin grinned, strode past him and gave him a little slap on his backside as she entered the corridor. "Don't apologize. I like that."

* * *

Garrett had noticed that the last undiscovered segment of the building had just one big door right in the middle, which was an indicator for a very large and probably important room behind it, so he really wanted to stop by there and fill their bags.

They carefully prowled along the corridor until they reached the door. Garrett indicated Erin to look up and stretched for the ceiling. He pulled himself up on a ledge than ran along the wall just under the ceiling, since he had noticed a grid above the door. He unscrewed the opening and squeezed himself through, Erin following.

They found themselves up in the rafters of a large a library.

 _Seems like_ _Thadeus_ _can read, after all… Or maybe this is to impress guests_ , Garrett thought. He looked out for guards. Erin had already taken the beam to his right and sneaked stooped over the masses of shelves below them. A number of chandeliers lit up the room, but it was a murky, flickering light that cast deep shadows between the shelves, so he didn't think it necessary to extinguish them. Sometimes the owners were so very helpful in creating hiding places for him. Garrett took the beam on the left and explored the library from above. Carefully placing his feet on the narrow beam, his cloak draped over his body like a blanket of darkness, he let his eyes wander over the backs of the numerous books, looking for traits that marked them as valuable. Gilded spines, chafed edges, worn corners, all those things indicated age and therefore promised worth.

A soft whistle and the sound of slippers on carpet attracted his attention.

An old, white-haired librarian, a book in his hands, shuffled between two shelves right below him. Garrett loomed over the man up in the shadows, gazing down at him like an owl at a mouse. Erin had seen him too, he noticed. He spotted her on the opposite side of the room, pointing down and moving her mouth without making a sound. He nodded.

Garrett jumped down behind the librarian, landing nimbly on the carpet. Without stretching from his stooped position, he snuck up on the man and relieved him of the bags on his belt. Then he followed him, which was not very hard since the elderly librarian was so caught up in his lecture. Garrett wanted to know where he was going before he made an attempt to take him out since the old man looked quite fragile.

Aware of Erin's questioning glare from above, Garrett slowly followed the librarian until the elderly man reached a side door, opened it and disappeared.

 _Good boy._

"Why did you not take him out?", Erin asked him after she had jumped down beside him.

"He did look quite old. Not sure how he's going to take a blow with the blackjack, it might even kill him", Garrett explained.

"And if he's coming back? Ah, don't say anything. In that case we'll improvise."

"Exactly."

Garrett turned to the next best shelf and continued to assess the value of the books by gently letting his sensitive fingers trail over their spines. Casting a glance over his shoulder, he could see that Erin was eyeing the door the old man had just left through suspiciously, but she seemed to be content to let the man go _._ Back then, this might have lead to a lengthy discussion, but not now. _Good_.

Garrett filled his loot bag with a selection of especially interesting looking tomes, including a treatise on architecture, a biography of Montonessi's likewise famous ancestor, a book about astronomy which was full of stellar maps, a catalog of rare minerals and, to his delight, an almanac of the noble houses of the City. This could prove to be more than useful.

Satisfied with the weight of his bag, he went and looked for Erin. He found her close to the windows, which turned out to be the few unbarred ones they had seen from the backside, high above the ground.

Erin was delving into a book, a concentrated and somehow very sad look on her face, her thin brows knitted. She didn't look up when he approached her.

"Erin?"

She didn't answer. Garrett carefully got closer, worried about her solemn expression. He tilted his head to read the title of the book that had such an impact on her.

It was a book about birds.

He could not imagine what in the Trickster's name could be so unsettling about birds.

"Anything wrong, Erin?", he asked again.

She lifted her head and turned the book around so that he could see it. "Look!"

Garrett looked. Apparently, the book was not only filled with text but also contained numerous illustrations, magnificent copperplates painted with bright colors, showing exotic and common birds in stunningly beautiful detail. The page Erin had shown him was not very colorful, though. It displayed a bird that was completely pitch-black like the midnight sky. It was rather small, about the size of a pigeon, had it not had its tail feathers. The tail of the bird was trice the length of the body, long, swirly plumes that glistened slightly, trailing elegantly behind the animal like a shadowy comet.

Garrett raised his eyebrows. "Beautiful. What kind of bird is that?"

Erin looked like she was about to cry. "That is _you_ , don't you see?"

"I'm afraid I don't." What was wrong with her? Something about this seemed to hurt her deeply.

"This is a _widowbird_. It's the most graceful, elegant and darkest bird there is, and the way it moves is utter perfection as if it was dancing, completely in harmony with the world around it. Just like you. Devoted, skillful, balanced. And this…" Erin quickly flipped through a few pages and pointed to a different bird.

"… This is me. A _shrike_."

Garrett regarded this other bird. It was smaller, pale in color, with black shades around its eyes and on the edges of its wings. Its beak was curved like the one of a very small bird of prey. It was perched on a branch of bramble, and on the thorns were small animals impaled. A skewered frog, a butterfly, a cricket, a dead mouse even, speared on the bloody spikes of the bramble.

"Shrikes pierce their prey on the thorns for later, like a stockpile. They just kill anything they find, whether they need to or not, and never get enough. This is me, angry and reckless." Erin gazed up at him, her eyes clouded with desperation. "I'm never going to be a widowbird. Never. I'm never going to be like you…" She broke off.

Garrett understood. At least, he thought so. Erin seemed to carry a much heavier load around with her than he had assumed. Her past troubled her more than she had dared to tell him, she felt guilty for the mistakes she had made. Garrett realized that her feelings of guilt were still very present, and, most importantly, her fear to disappoint him again. She feared that she was too different from him to overcome her weaknesses.

That was something that Garrett had been afraid of too, he had to admit to himself. Afraid that Erin would never get the better of her deeply rooted anger and offensive approach, and that they would fall out once more.

But Erin had done so well today…

He truly thought that she deserved another chance, wanted to believe that she could overcome the discontent that affected not only those around her, but mostly herself. Trying to calm her, he gently took the book from her shaking hands and flipped the pages until he had found what he was looking for.

"Here", Garret said, showing her an illustration of a rather small, agile falcon. "This is a _kestrel_. It is a bird of prey, which means that it has the potential to hunt. To kill. But it only kills when it needs to. It possesses great destructive strength, but it controls and harnesses these in a way that allows it to live in balance with its surroundings. Kestrels are self control." He took her hand. "You were a shrike, once. Back then, when you were younger and still trying to find your place in this world. You have a lot of talents, but you need to learn to control them. You might not be a widowbird, but you can become a kestrel."

Garrett watched her face carefully. A mixture of emotions danced across Erin's features, but then a weary, thankful look made him release the breath he had been holding. She embraced him once more.

"I'll do my best. I'll become a kestrel, I promise", she murmured, burying her face in the curve of his neck. Garrett gently rubbed her back, returning her embrace. Normally, all this sentimental strain would have been way more than he was willing to take. The time between the accident and Erin's return had put more emotional weight on his mind than all of his other years combined, and it was not easy to bear. Now, he had the satisfying feeling that at lot was at peace between Erin and him, even if they hadn't actually talked about what had been weighing them down. But, the Thief found, the thought of teaming up with Erin once more, making up for the mistakes he had made and help her with her own, filled him with such a determination he could hardly wrap his mind around.

Garrett handed her the book, and after a short hesitation she took it and stored it in her loot bag.

"Let's return to our nests, shall we?", he asked quietly. Garrett indicated the windows, up on this floor unbarred. They were inaccessible from below, but the way down was always easier than the way up. He produced his lockpicks.

"After you, widowbird", Erin came back with a mischievous grin.

Garrett picked the lock of the window and hopped on the ledge, his bag fastened over his shoulder. He firmly anchored his claw in the wood, unrolling the length of rope around his hip. He let himself drop over the edge and abseiled down the facade of the mansion. After quite a long drop, he was close enough to the ground to jump the last bit, waiting for Erin to join him. When she had arrived on the ground, they quickly checked their left and right, straining their ears for the guards. Voices were to be heard from the front yard, and they hurried to climb up the fence and jump over on the other side.

When his feet hit the dirty cobblestones again, Garrett experienced the wonderful feeling of elation that followed a successful raid, hopped up on adrenaline, the weight of his heavy lootbag on his shoulder a sweet promise of riches. There always was a sensation of limitless freedom that filled Garrett when he returned from a heist, the best reward, better than his plunder's weight in gold. It was what drove him forward.

Now, he turned around to Erin, and by the way her eyes glittered when their gazes locked he knew she experienced just the same. Garrett knew that she could see him smiling under the mask. They shared a silent moment of bliss, both quietly enjoying the exhilaration after their heist. Then Garrett turned and signaled her to follow. They skittered through the night's embrace back towards the bridge to Stonemarket, and Garrett found himself reminded that while being out on thieving trips with Erin, unlike any other thing, a joy shared could be a joy doubled. For the first time in years, his heart felt light as a feather.

* * *

A/N: And now we know why this story is called "Kestrel and Widowbird". Finally.  
I am very well aware of the fact that birds are a lot more complex than what I briefly described here ;). I wanted to use part of their nature as a metaphor for certain characteristics of Erin and Garrett and I think they fit very well. Also, if you never heard of the widowbird you should look it up. It's so damn fancy and dark, just like Garrett.


	6. Chapter 6 - Sweet Wine

**Chapter 6 – Sweet Wine**

Garrett's entire body was a sore, but he was more than satisfied.

He returned from a successful raid, the biggest after the raid on the General's mansion about two months past, his loot bag pleasingly heavy. Breaking into the Western Trading Company's storehouse just after their proprietor had returned to continue his business because of what passed under newly restored peace in the City had proved to be a very good idea. The men were still taking inventory of the cargo and nobody really had kept track of what was brought from overseas, offering Garrett the opportunity to pick his favorites from the exotic load fastidiously, only choosing the best bits to sale and quite some extravagant trinkets for his collection. So far, so good.

The downside of his little trip was that he had been forced to hide in the water at one very unlucky point, something he usually avoided. At least he hadn't been discovered, but the cold, smelly sea water of the harbor had completely drenched his leathers. After that, Garrett had to walk a long way back from the most distant part of the harbor to a meeting with a client at the _Siren's Rest_ , stop by a shady merchant who turned out to be conspicuous by his absence, so Garrett had to walk even further to visit a different place to stock up. By then, the muddy salt water had dried and made his armor feel stiff and grimy, he was chilled to the bone and every part of him felt raw, especially his tired feet. Marching still more miles back to his clocktower was nothing he looked forward to, so he decided to instead stop by Erin's mill, which was a lot closer to his current location.

Garrett slipped through the secret passage and got into the mill. Carefully avoiding the traps Erin had set up in quite some creative ways, he walked up the stairs into the messy den between the giant arbors and gear wheels of the old mill that she called her living room.

"Erin?"

She appeared behind a ramshackle wall made of old planks. "Garrett!" Erin laid down the tools she had been working with and crossed her arms in front of her chest, eyeing him from head to toe with a mischievous smirk playing around her lips. "You look like a drowned crow."

"Funny, because that's just how I feel."

"Your raid on the Trading Company fell through, then?"

"The only thing that fell was me, into the harbor. Had to hide quickly." Garrett casually placed the heavy loot bag on her desk, letting it drop gently but with a noise loud enough to show her how full it was. Erin raised her eyebrows in interest while Garrett slumped into a cushioned chair, a cloud of dust emerging from the pillows. He pushed his mask and hood back, laid his head back and groaned thankfully, finally able to take a welcomed rest.

Erin had skittered over to his bag and rummaged around in it, turning an especially beautiful golden statuette in the shape of a small lioness in her hands, the animal's eyes glittering fiercely red from the inset rubies. "Seems like it was profitable."

"'Twas. I'm just feeling like I marched around the whole City three times in a row. My feet are killing me." Garrett stretched his legs, feeling his calves and toes ache.

"Awww, poor old widowbird. Are you getting out of shape?", Erin teased. Garrett shot her a glance that was supposed to look annoyed, but the gentle expression in her eyes told him that she cared a lot about his exhaustion. He couldn't help one corner of his mouth to curl up in a tired smile.

"I think I have just the right thing for you", Erin added. "I just boiled a kettle of water for my laundry and I still have some left." She turned around and took a bucket from an overstuffed shelf, filled it halfway with rainwater from a barrel and placed it in front of Garrett. Garrett watched her impassively, feeling way too sore to care for anything but his aching muscles. Erin poured the boiling water from the kettle into the bucket until it was almost full, then she turned to her bed and retrieved a worn suitcase from under it. Now curiously after all, Garrett craned his neck to see what she was doing. The suitcase contained a collection of bottles, small canvas bags and mason jars, apparently her medicine chest. Erin produced a jar that was filled with fine yellow powder, stored the suitcase away and came back to him.

"What's that?", Garrett asked when she poured a generous amount of the yellow powder into the bucket of water in front of where he was sitting.

"Flour of mustard", she came back. She dipped a hand into the bucket and mixed the powder with the hot water. A slightly pungent, but very spicy smell of mustard diffused from the water, which slowly took on an opaque yellow color. Was this supposed to be a soup?

"I'm not hungry, thanks", Garrett commented warily. The water looked like the loamy mud that ran down the gutter after a long rain.

"It's not for eating, silly. Take off your boots and dip your feet in. The mustard powder helps to relax your muscles, cures sores and even relives headaches", Erin explained. "Have you never heard about this?"

Garrett raised an eyebrow, eyeing the steaming concoction in front of him suspiciously. He didn't really feel like taking his boots off, taking into account how dirty he felt, and also this looked a lot like quackery to him. Unnecessities like perfumes, fancy clothing, furniture that exceeded the absolute basic equipment, wallpapers, or in this case, footbaths, were things that he considered luxuries wasting time he would rather use to fletch some arrows. On the other hand, his feet _did_ hurt like hell and he had never tried anything like this before, unlike Erin, who seemed to be convinced that it would help.

He decided to give it a try. Garrett unlaced his boots, took them off and put them aside, then rolled up the hems of his leather pants up to his knees.

"You can give me your other wet things, I'll put them out to dry for you", Erin said. Garrett obediently removed his cloak and unlaced his harness since these were the wettest parts, the linen and canvas would dry faster. Erin took his soaked cloak and harness that he handed over to her and also picked up his dirty boots before he could object, placing them over a railing a bit away from her fireplace. She threw him a glance that was somewhere between a gentle smile and a teasing smirk, but she seemed to enjoy to be able to take care of him. Garrett didn't really care about her needling as long as he was still feeling like an entire cramp, so he just dipped his sore feet into the fragrant water.

To his surprise he found that it felt absolutely amazing.

Letting his head droop back and sighing with relief, Garrett reclined against the soft cushions of the chair and enjoyed the waves of warmth that radiated from his feet up to his legs, relaxing his aching muscles. His numerous sores immediately stopped hurting. He moved his toes and flexed his feet in different angles in the hot water, feeling the tension fade away. The sharp smell of the mustard actually turned out to invigorate his tired head, lifting his spirits. The exhaustion of the long day slowly drained from his body. Garrett almost purred with delight, his eyes closed.

He heard Erin step behind him and felt her nimble fingers untie the leather band that fastened the longer strands of his hair. She loosened the wet strands and then a towel flopped over his head. Garrett twitched surprised, but Erin only used it to gently rub his hair dry. It felt like a massage. Not moving a muscle, Garrett lounged in the chair for he didn't know how long, enjoying Erin's caresses and the warmth and scent of the mustard water, listening to the soft crackling of the fire that illuminated the dark mill. He almost dozed off. When Erin suddenly pushed another chair in front of his bucket, his head jerked up and he blinked the sleepiness away.

Erin sat down in front of him, the towel on her lap. "Looks like you really were in need of a rest", she remarked with a compassionate little smirk. He just nodded.

"I feel much better now. Thanks to you", he came back, stretching his arms.

"What about your feet?"

"Still sore, but a lot less than before."

"Good. Put your foot on my lap." Erin tapped the towel draped over her knees.

Garrett blinked. "No, thanks." This went a little too far from what he considered comfortable.

"Come on, don't be shy. Never had a foot massage before?"

Garrett shook his head, a little embarrassed. Erin had that evil smirk she always showed when she was teasing him. "Garrett, I'm sure I've already seen, touched and tasted every single inch of your body, and same goes for you concerning mine. Doing something for your poor feet won't kill me. They are clean now, so why don't you give it a try?"

Garrett, who tried very hard not to blush at the casual mention of their more intimate activities, found that she was right, strictly speaking. Delicately lifting one foot out of the bucket and stretching his leg out, he placed it on her lap. Erin used the towel to dry his skin and then massaged his foot. Garrett could not stop himself from letting out a soft moan of delight, which made her smile. It did feel wonderful, he had to grant her that. The way she kneaded his sinews and sole helped him to relax further, chasing the pain of the long walk away.

"Your feet are so small", Erin observed. "For a man, I mean."

"I'm not very tall, that's why", Garrett came back.

Erin winked at him. "I like them a lot. And you have just the right size."

"… Thanks." He had to smile.

"And? Think the Western Trading Company is worth another visit?", Erin asked him without looking up from her activity, concentrating on her work.

"Definitely. There are more merchants coming back to the City now that the Gloom is gone. Loads of cargo from overseas. Rare and sought after", he told her. Erin looked up briefly, a daring smirk on her face that Garrett returned. They exchanged an excited look that spoke of a silent promise to stop by the storehouse again in the future, and together this time. There was no need to say it aloud, they knew perfectly well what the other was thinking. Two Thieves could carry more loot. This promised to be very interesting.

Since they had retrieved Erin's equipment from the Thief Taker General's mansion, on the way destroying the collected evidence on Garrett, let alone the other things they had done to unnerve the General, about two months had passed, and Garrett found the teamwork with Erin more than pleasing. He still went on missions alone, as did she, but sometimes they teamed up again, with her trying to improve her techniques and learn from Garrett. Erin was very helpful in certain fiddly situations that were hard to manage alone. That way, sometimes they were able to pull off operations far more complicated and risky than what they could do by themselves, and many times they had shared silent moments of blissful triumph when an especially impossible seeming trick worked out for them, allowing the two Thieves to return home with priceless spoils. Garrett found that their minds often worked in synch, as if the break they had been forced to take in their teamwork before their reunion had only improved their connection. They had the same ideas, the same instincts, and often it wasn't even necessary to talk to communicate, which was something he really appreciated.

Sometimes, Erin's rebellious side would pipe up, as was her nature, causing discussions about approaches and techniques, but unlike earlier, they were able to solve them constructively. There were still moments in which Erin behaved very stubbornly, rolling her eyes at Garrett, but he knew that it was just meant jestingly. The same went for Garrett, he was often teasing her with sarcastic comments, and instead of getting angry she would put his needling off with a smirk and a slap on his backside. They did have their little squabbles, just like Garrett had expected when he had thought about giving her another chance, but they were meant nicely, and he enjoyed them.

 _Erin has made great progress. No ugly run-ins with guards so far, and no unnecessary assassinations. I don't regret this._

And not to mention the _other_ comforts…

Every once in a while, and lately more often, as Garrett had to admit to himself, they met not to go on a mission together, but to abandon themselves to carnal activities. It mostly started with a shared supper, some gear to repair or a chat in the mill or the clocktower and then suddenly turned into hungry kisses and quick breathing and soon after they would drop into bed, fervently struggling to rid each other of their clothing. Garrett had never really bothered with that kind of pleasures before, but he found that he really enjoyed them and that they helped him to balance his mind between missions. Same went for Erin, he supposed. Surprisingly, he did not feel like he was wasting his time. On the contrary, Garrett felt like he was refilling a pool of energy he never knew he had.

 _What's even weirder, sometimes we don't end up in bed but just talk or fall asleep without getting naked before, and it still feels like I am regenerating_ , he mused thoughtfully not for the first time. Just like now. Garrett did feel a little aroused from her touch, but still was perfectly comfortable with just sitting in a chair and feeling the stress drain away with every move of her fingers.

As he glanced around the room, eyes halfway closed with bliss while she massaged his feet, Garrett noticed that Erin had finished a lot of paintings since he visited her last time. There actually were less drawings of him and more drawings of tools, buildings and animals, sometimes even sketches of guards seen from above, as if Erin was taking quick field notes while she was on raids alone.

Garrett threw her an appreciative glance, then he produced his small silver opium pipe and filled it with poppy. "Could you heat this up for me, please?"

Erin paused her massage for a moment and took the pipe from his hands. She carefully heated the pipe over her fire until the opium began vaporizing. "You've never liked this stuff before, did you?", she asked. "Only since the accident, when a splinter of the Primal Stone got stuck in your eye."

"I don't necessarily need it, it's just useful every now and then. It helps me focus on things that are hidden", Garrett said. They already had talked about the splinter a while ago, when Erin had wanted to know why his right eye looked different from before.

"I always wondered why poppy had a different effect on you than on other people. You don't seem to get drowsy or anything, just more concentrated", Erin observed when she handed Garrett the softly steaming pipe and watched as he took a drag.

"The Primal Stone makes it work differently, I suppose. I asked the Queen of Beggars about this, once."

"And?"

"Something mystical and vague about the balance of powers and my personal chunk of Primal Stone still being active due to its small size. You know how she is", Garrett answered while he exhaled a small cloud of thick, white steam.

Erin got a little closer to him and intently stared at his light-turquoise right eye, then she stretched out a hand and lightly ran her fingers over the scars that covered one half of his face, as she had already done a lot of times before. Garrett tensed. He knew the scars didn't help to beautify his features.

Erin noticed him flinching and grinned. "I've already told you a million times how pretty your face is, Garrett. Even when with your scars, that messy beard and your odd mismatched eyes, you look incredibly beautiful." She pressed a light kiss on his cheek.

"If you say so…"

"Now wipe that gloomy frown from your face, I just paid you a compliment!"

Garrett's mouth curled into a lopsided smile, whether he wanted or not. He cared precious little about what other people thought about his looks since most people never got to see him anyway, but still it felt good to know that Erin liked his face. "Thanks", he murmured, taking another drag from his pipe. He blew a small cloud of smoke in her direction, which made her cough.

"Stop it!", Erin snapped, then she grinned. "Junkie."

Garrett chuckled softly. He lifted his other foot from the bucket and placed it on her lap. Erin continued her massage and Garrett appreciatively laid his head back, enjoying the touch of her nimble fingers and the mildly intoxicating feeling of opium, making his Primal eye smolder softly.

Outside of the old mill, the night was slowly making way for the day, the sky turning from a deep inky blue to a soft orange. The first pigeons were to be heard, and bakers shouting orders to their apprentices. Garrett was feeling sleepy now rather than exhausted and his eyes kept falling shut every now and then.

"Think I can spend the day at your place?", he asked eventually when Erin was done with her massage. He felt like she had reduced him to a puddle, and he wouldn't reach his clocktower before dawn anyway.

"Do you really have to ask?", she came back. Erin got up and placed some blankets in front of the fire. She indicated Garrett to take a seat on the floor while she slipped out of her boots and bodice. Garrett, too tired to question anything, sat down cross-legged in front of the glowing embers. Erin joined him, sitting in front of him, and he wrapped her in his limbs so she could lean back against his chest. Garrett placed his chin on her shoulder, cradling her in his arms and pushing his nose in her short black hair, inhaling her wonderful scent. Erin reached behind her, placed a hand on his crotch and lifted one eyebrow when she felt the light bulge pressing into the small of her back. Garrett just rumbled some drowsy apology into her nape, which made Erin giggle. She reached for a bottle of wine next to the fire and handed it to Garrett, who thankfully took a swig. The wine was sweet as honey and heady and made him even sleepier. Even though he did feel quite allured by the way Erin's slender, warm body felt in his embrace, he was content to just sit in front of the fire, listening to some story about Erin's last heist she told him. He commented it from time to time, which made her laugh, a sound that was incredibly comforting for him.

Before Garrett had almost lost her, intimacies like this were strange to him. He just hadn't cared about it, but now that he was able to share it with her, he found that he enjoyed it more than he could put into words.

 _Whatever_ it _is_ , Garrett thought before he finally fell asleep, Erin locked in his arms.

* * *

The next evening, he woke up curled up in a pile of wool in front of the cold fireplace. He had slept almost nine hours during which Erin had wrapped him in a blanket and managed to stuff a pillow under his head before she got into her own bed, and Garrett felt utterly refreshed. He had breakfast with her when the sun went down, helped her with the repairs of the climbing rope attached to her claw and wished her farewell to return to Basso. The Thief skipped nimbly from roof to roof under a hazy sky, the heavy loot bag on his shoulder just a tiny bit lighter, since Garrett had not been able to resist to leave the small golden lioness on Erin's nightstand, unnoticed by her. He smiled inwardly when he imagined her discovering it.


	7. Chapter 7 - Dry Wine

**Chapter 7 – Dry Wine**

Basso was standing in his office the cellar of the _Crippled Burrick'_ , writing numbers in a budget book, when he glimpsed a shadow moving in front of the window. He grinned, already having figured out that it was Garrett. He waited for the Thief to open the window and slip into the cellar.

 _Some things never change… He's still bad with doors._

After all the bullshit with the Gloom, Garrett's mysterious absence, the Graven riots and whatnot, Basso was more than glad that his friend was back in his old glory. His black-clad, shadowy, non-glistening glory, a guarantor for professionally executed heists in the most elegant ways possible, and he was busier than ever. Other things did change, though… The presence of Erin had made Basso a little worried at first, considering how distressed Garrett had been after their ugly split and during her imprisonment, but it had quickly gotten obvious that they formed an excellent team. They still went on missions alone too, though. Sometimes Basso assigned missions to Erin himself, but she did not accept any assassination offers any more. Sometimes he judged that a waste of talent, but he also knew how Garrett thought about that and he could imagine how pleased the Master Thief was with her new approach. Sometimes they worked together, sometimes not, but they were always excellent. Basso's business was going better than in years, especially now that the City was slowly recovering from the crisis.

The little jackdaw named Corvo cawed loudly when it noticed Garrett enter through the window. Basso registered the full loot bag with an appreciative smile, which Garrett returned.

"Evening."

"Garrett, good to see ya! Come in, empty your bag on the table, have a seat. Where have you been?"

"Western Trading Company", Garrett answered, doing as he was asked before he sat down on a chair, crossing his legs elegantly.

"Ahhh, sloppy bookkeeping and such?"

"Very sloppy."

Basso grinned toothily, a low chuckle rumbling in his broad chest. His eyes glittered when he looked over Garrett's loot. "That's just how we like it, don't we? Shit, look at the size of this emerald!" He held up a beautifully crafted jewelry box, its lid inlaid with emeralds as big as pigeons' eggs.

Garrett just smiled his lopsided sly smile. Basso knew perfectly well one could not trust a Thief, but he could always trust Garrett to behave like Garrett, and that meant that his business partner had already picked out a handful of trinkets he was not willing to part from for his collection. Basso also knew that his friend still left the major part for him to sell, which was worth a small fortune. Basso looked over his plunder excitedly, already planning where to sell which piece and how to squeeze the biggest profit out of it. The jackdaw eyed Garrett curiously while its master made notes in a book, taking inventory. Then, Basso pushed a plump bag of coins over to Garrett, who got up and took it with a graceful bow.

"Here's your share, Garrett. Oh, and in addition to your more than lavish payment, I'll get us a bottle of wine from my special stock. You're in for a treat on the house."

"Too generous."

"Move over to the couch and make yourself at home", Basso ordered grinning. "I'll be with you in a minute, just let me get that bottle."

Returning with two more or less clean glasses, Basso flopped down in an armchair on the other side of a small table, placed the wine bottle between them and poured Garrett a glass. The Thief took it, holding it gracefully in his long, slender hands, raised it briefly to Basso and tried a sip.

"It's a dry red wine from the southern islands, excellent vintage. Tastes like summer sunshine, don't it?", Basso asked.

"Dry wine is not what I prefer usually, but this one is quite delicious", Garrett confirmed.

"And? Any news? How was your last raid with Erin?", Basso wanted to know, referring to a mission the two Thieves had accepted from him about a week ago. Garrett had been a bit wary to take the contract, Basso remembered, since the situation they were to put themselves in was expected to be extremely dangerous, but in the end he hadn't been able to resist. The payment was beyond generous, and Erin was looking forward to it so badly he didn't want to recline.

"Getting past the wall was the easiest part, but breaking into the strongroom and getting those porcelain statuettes out without dropping anything was not really a walk in the park", Garrett told him. "Don't get me started on the damn folding bridge."

"What about the folding bridge?", Basso asked grinning.

Garrett shot him a sour smile. "We had to cross it before we could get into the castle."

"And? It was guarded, I assume."

"One hundred and fifty crossbowmen."

"Shit."

"Exactly." Garrett took another sip of wine, turning the glass in the candlelight, apparently admiring the shade of deep red. He did not look like he was going to continue. Basso sighed. His friend really was a chatterbox, wasn't he?

"Dammit Garrett, do I have to worm every detail out of you? How did you cope with that private army?"

"It was… complex. Erin and I split up and while she created a diversion I tinkered with the bridge control a little, and in the end we were right across and the crossbowmen went for a nice bath in the castle moat."

"Heck yes, wish I had seen that!", Basso exclaimed. Garrett just smiled and rose his glass to him again. "So, the work with Erin is going well, I suppose? No arguments anymore?"

"It's going much better than earlier. She is much more balanced, even though she tends to run ahead a lot instead of taking time to observe the environment. We had… a little quarrel about that."

"A _little quarrel_?"

A faint hint of insecurity flickered across Garrett's face for the fraction of a heartbeat, and, if Basso read his friend's deadpan face correctly (and he prided himself with being very good at that), he actually blushed a tiny bit.

* * *

"You are going too fast."

"What, are you getting tired?", Erin asked.

"I meant that you should take your time investigating the area first. Get an impression of the dimensions of the place, allow your instincts to explore the building before you rush in", Garrett explained, gazing around the dark corridor, the sounds of the heavily guarded castle a distant hum around them.

"Maybe I already know all I have to know", Erin came back. She was not being angry, he could tell by the way her eyes shone, she was just teasing him.

Garrett lifted an eyebrow. "Any traps?"

Erin pointed. "Down that corridor, two of them, and the slightly raised floorboard over there looks suspicious too."

Garrett nodded. "Not bad. But you forgot the one right behind you."

"What?" Erin spun around, an alerted look on her face. "I could have sworn…"

Garrett seized her quickly from behind, softly chuckling as he pinned her against the wall of the corridor gently but firmly enough to immobilize her, one leg crossed between hers and her arms held in an iron lock, making it impossible for her to move. Erin made a surprised sound, be she didn't squeal. Then she started giggling quietly, squirming in his grip.

"Let me go, stupid taffer!"

"Today's second lesson… Never trust anyone. Not even me. _Especially_ not me", he purred in her ear.

Erin wrenched free from his grip, turned to face him and grabbed his hands by the wrists, grinning widely. "Fine, I'll take my time. Don't want to run in any made-up traps, do I?"

Garrett let go of her. They stood still for a moment, gazes locked, but still perceiving all the omnipresent sounds of the castle around the dark corridor they were standing in. Finally, Erin stepped up close to Garrett, pulled down his mask and kissed him.

"I'll learn the first lesson, Master Thief, but not the second", she said softly.

Garrett didn't reply. His heart beat faster as he let her words sink in. He ignored that, smiled vaguely and inclined his head to kiss her again, savoring the feeling of her soft lips against his.

"Time for _your_ lesson, Garrett", Erin whispered after a while. He frowned. What did she mean?

"Pardon me?"

"You have heard the procession of guards that are walking down the stairs just around the next corner, haven't you?"

"Of course I have."

"Good. They are not within earshot as long as we keep quiet, but if we, say, started to get _noisy_ , they would most certainly hear us", Erin explained slowly, her hands trailing down Garrett's chest and abdomen, resting on his crotch.

He did not like where this was going.

He couldn't make himself stop her, either.

"Don't…", Garrett whispered huskily, but Erin just kissed him again and muffled his words with her lips while her nimble hands opened his belts, unfastened some laces and made place for his manhood. When she started stroking the length of him, gently swirling the palm of her thumb across the tip, Garrett bit his lower lip and leaned back against the wooden wall of the corridor. His eyes fell shut and he felt her warm breath on his face, his loins starting to send powerful jolts of heat through his body.

She stopped kissing him. At first, Garrett didn't realize it, since he was too busy enjoying her caresses, but when he opened his eyes again, he flinched in shock.

Erin had gotten down on her knees, gazing up at him with a lascivious smirk on her face.

"No…", he breathed, but before he could say anything else, Erin had already closed her lips around his erection.

Garrett let his head sink back against the wall. He felt like he was losing his consciousness.

The hot wetness of her mouth and her tongue made him sway between incredible pleasure and the almost painful amount of immense self control it took him to not moan loudly. Desperately trying to keep himself quiet, Garrett pressed the back of his head against the wall, biting his lip and cursing under his breath. Worried they might get discovered, he turned his head in the direction of the marching guards, but a heartbeat later Erin's soft tongue was easing down his mandible again and he had to bite back a throaty groan. The sight of her in front of him and what she did was so alluring he felt his completion approaching within minutes, making him feel like he was going to faint. Garrett dug his left hand into the hair of her crown, squirming with pleasure. The other he brought to his mouth, biting down into the side of his fist to keep himself from crying out his lust so hard that he almost tasted blood when he finally came, trembling with tension, the powerful climax taking his breath away.

Erin kept gently sucking on him until Garrett had finished, leaving him feeling shaky on the legs and panting softly. She stood up, looked over to where the sounds of the guards came from and listened intently. When she heard nothing, she turned back to him and smiled.

"You're getting much better", she said teasingly and kissed him. Garrett could taste his own seed on her lips, strange and alluring at the same time. He had never made an experience like this before and was not sure whether he was a bit ashamed by what Erin had done, especially the part with her drinking up his desire, or completely stoked about it. Slowly finding his way back into reality now that his lust was subsiding, it was replaced by utter relaxation that outweighed his mild embarrassment.

"Tell me if I should chide or thank you for this", he purred huskily.

Erin shot him a smug grin. "Do as you please, for my part I enjoyed this a lot. You did very well. Barely a noise this time."

Garrett decided to be thankful. It had felt absolutely amazing. He rolled his eyes and pulled his mask up while she closed his pants again.

"Let's steal some fancy statuettes, shall we, widowbird?"

"After you, kestrel", he came back, taking a bow.

* * *

Garrett tried not to blush. The way Basso was eyeing him told him that his friend was using his unnerving ability of reading his very thoughts again, something that he had become very good at over the years.

Garrett didn't mind telling him about their mission, but he would most certainly not tell him about Erin's lesson.

"We solved it constructively", he answered as neutral as possible.

Basso raised one eyebrow. _Damn him._

"Well, sounds like you had fun. I've seen the porcelain trinkets you brought with you. A miracle nothing broke."

"It's all about accuracy, Basso", Garrett replied, glad about the change of topic.

"Yeah, sure. Here, have some more." Basso refilled Garrett's glass, reclining his sturdy frame in the old armchair comfortably, then spoke again. "So, concerning Erin… You've finally given in, haven't ya?"

Garrett cursed inwardly. Talking about this kind of stuff made him feel uneasy. He wasn't sure where Basso was going with this, but he felt that he tried to worm something out of Garrett. And that he was having fun while he did so, the sly bastard.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh Garrett… Look, I knew ya two were made for each other since the very beginning. Ya know, when Erin came to me after she had fled the House of Blossoms, I immediately thought _Hey, introduce her to Garrett! They'll be good for each other_."

"Each other? I have the feeling that matter was a bit skewed", Garrett replied, making himself recall that he had had no need of Erin, but she of him when he rescued her from a life as a dockfrock.

 _I did not need her back then. I just needed myself. Still, I accepted her as an apprentice._

 _Now, I don't need her either… I'm sure I don't… Am I?_

Basso interrupted his thoughts. "Well, you have to admit that you enjoyed her company before that ugly split, didn't ya?"

"Yes, kind of."

"See? And now, I can clearly see that you are in a much better mood since Erin's back. And much more productive, which makes ol' Basso here very happy, I tell ya. Bursting with vigor, the Master Thief reborn! I remember how out of your mind you were when she was gone. And now, I daresay that you're better than ever!"

 _I hate to admit, but… he's right._

"Hm."

"And? When's the wedding?"

Garrett almost choked on his wine.

Coughing, he placed the glass on the table. Basso was roaring with laughter so hard he was holding his belly, almost rolling out of the armchair.

 _He was just joking_ , Garrett tried to tell himself. Still, he shot Basso an icy glare cold enough to freeze a bonfire. Basso's laughter subsided to be replaced by a low chuckle, and he wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.

"Your face! Priceless!"

"We are _not_ a couple", Garrett insisted stiffly.

"Ahhh, so ya two are just having fun in bed every now and then, huh? That's the smartest way, that is! Garrett, you lucky bastard, I always hoped for you to find yerself some gal to bed down with. It's so much healthier, ya know?"

"If you say so. As long as Erin's not getting between me and my work, it's nice every now and then."

So much about that sentence was a lie. First of all, Garrett did occasionally forego part of his loot when they were out on missions together, shared his payments with Erin and sometimes spent the day in her bed instead of his workshop. But, and that surprised him utterly, he did not feel like he was neglecting his work. On the contrary. The occasional teamwork with her was profitable enough to compensate for any losses he made by sharing his payment. Furthermore, he felt balanced and grounded, unlike earlier, when he was being harassed by worries about Erin, about her safety and whereabouts. Now he was able to focus on crafting, training and thievery much more efficiently. Secondly, spending time with her was not just _nice_. It was… much, much more. But Garrett would rather set himself on fire than admitting this to Basso.

"Nice, huh? And how do you imagine this to go on?", Basso wanted to know.

Garrett blinked, taken aback. He had felt uneasy at first, but now he felt like he was being interrogated. He didn't reply.

Basso sighed, playing with the rings on his chubby fingers. "Look, Garrett, I'm just trying to help ya, old friend. Why have you agreed to train her in the first place, and why have you accepted her back after you've sworn to work alone more times than I can count?"

Garrett didn't know. Or, at least, he didn't want to know, but something deep inside him stirred when he thought about this.

 _There is something about Erin that I've never encountered in another person in my entire life. Something about her makes me feel… different. Not sure if I like that._

He just shrugged.

"Are you kidding me? Fine. Look, how do you imagine this whole thing between you and her to play out? Are you going to turn her into a Master Thief like yourself and then send her into another City, because this one already has a Garrett? You know, play her mentor until she's learned everything you know and then let the bird leave the nest as soon as it's fledged, or do you intend to keep her here forever?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

"Maybe what?"

Garrett didn't know what would happen. He had never thought about that, since it made his stomach turn into a tight knot. All he had wanted was to make up for his failure to help her after the accident that he had initiated, to clear his troubled conscience. And now? His conscience was at peace again, and still Garrett didn't want her to leave, but he had no idea how their relationship was going to be on the long run. He lived from night to night, from heist to heist, not caring about the future too much. Thinking about this made his head swim.

Basso sighed again. "Alright, I know you're not the kind of guy to have feelings and all that shit. Rork's teeth, Garrett, an oyster has a richer emotional life than you do! But you need to keep in mind that all of this is give-and-take. What if Erin grows tired of your aloofness and finds herself a decent young lad, one that doesn't keep her at a distance?"

 _She feels way too much for me to do that. She would never… Would she? Have I ever given her a reason to leave me?_

 _When have I ever given her a reason_ not _to leave me?_

Garrett desperately tried to keep calm while ice-cold panic was rising inside him, clasping his heart painfully.

"She lives alone. Same goes for me. It's what we do."

Basso rested his chin on his hand, his gaze piercing mercilessly through Garrett's facade. "Yeah, I'm sure that's what you two have told yourselves to maintain the illusion. But… Erin has never played by your rules, has she?"

"I'm teaching her to do so."

"Just take care you don't teach her to be unhappy, you hear me? If you do, you're going to hurt both her and yourself. Again."

Garrett wasn't unhappy. He would not consider himself an overly happy person either, since he associated that with unnecessary emotional turmoil. For him, being happy meant being able to do what he wanted, to be free, to be a Thief. Dedicate himself to his work. Since Erin had returned and he knew that she was safe again, he had been able to indulge in the silent art more efficiently than ever, not speaking of the other comforts their reunion brought with it, something he enjoyed more than he could ever have imagined.

No, he wasn't unhappy. Was he?

 _Was she?_

 _She told me that she would accept it if I never returned her feelings for me. But what if she grows tired of that?_

 _What if Erin leaves?_

When Garrett went home later that night, his heart was burning.


	8. Chapter 8 - Samhain Eve

A/N: I know, this chapter is not _that_ long. I'm sorry, I had real life stuff to do. BUT chapter 9 is almost done and will be posted very soon, I promise! Thank you so much for your ongoing support, I really appreciate it. Anyway, enjoy this one!

P.S.: Samhain is a holiday with celtic roots that actually exists. I included it into the world of Thief because I thought it was fitting, and because there is little known about other festivities.

* * *

 **Chapter 8 – Samhain Eve**

"I have been waiting for weeks for this evening!", Erin announced excitedly.

Garrett looked up from his cluttered workbench and glanced over to her. He smiled. "Me too."

Erin winked at him and continued to watch the celebration that was going on down in the Clocktower Plaza. Samhain Eve was the most important celebration after the Summersday Festival Eve still left over from the pagan roots of the region. Most of these ancient traditions were long forgotten and frowned upon by the government, but still, some holidays had made it to survive the stream of history until today. During the Samhain festivities, the people of the City would prepare stakes and pyres in every square and plaza and prepare loads of food, beer and wine. As soon as the sun went down, bonfires would burn all over the City, they would play music in the streets, dance and sing and drink, honoring the summer sun's last warming rays and paying tribute to the light half of the year, a boisterous farewell, bracing themselves against the cold autumn winds, the frost and the darkness.

Garrett didn't really care about the meaning of the day, but he cared very much about the part with everybody getting roaring drunk.

As soon as the noise of the music and the chanting would subside, just before the sun went up after a night of wild celebrations, Erin and him would honor the last night before the cold half of the year in their own way: Raid the City while its inhabitants were sleeping off their drinking spree.

"Look at all those happy fools down there. They have no idea what awaits them next morning…", Erin commented smugly. "Vittori has set up part of his Carnival on the plaza! Wait… Is that chubby guy with the long beard and the red dress a woman…?"

"Her name is Ysabella. She's Vittori's lover", Garrett said.

"You know her?"

"I've freed her from the prison once, carrying her while she was unconscious."

Erin blinked at Garrett, rising one eyebrow. "I better not ask, do I?"

"Please don't."

"Sometimes I believe you've done more nasty shit than me, you are just very good at hiding it."

Garrett grunted briefly and turned to hide his smirk. He was busying himself with the improvement of the soles in his boots. The soft leather had been worn thin in some places and he had planned to smooth out some crinkles a while ago, and this evening he had finally found the time. His workbench was covered in awls, thread, needles and an assortment of snippets of different kinds of leather he had been experimenting with. Garrett had started in the afternoon, and shortly after that Erin came over for a visit. He was very happy that she had shown up, giving him the opportunity to ask her to fetch some food for both of them, himself not being able to leave since his boots where not usable at the time. Now she was sitting casually on the window ledge next to his workshop, leaning against the wooden frame, a cup of cider in her hand, watching the throng down in the streets with interest.

Garrett took another bite of the exquisite blue cheese Erin had brought with her, just the kind she knew he liked most, and washed it down with a swig of cider before he continued his work. The afternoon sun was setting slowly, dying the City in a soft, buttery light the color of honey. The day had been clear, and the first stars where shining in the firmament, the moon bright and full. The early evening mists where rising from the crooked alleyways, mixing with the smoke of the first bonfires. A warm wind blew the scents from the City into the clocktower, the spicy smells of burning wood, mulled wine, cakes and dirty cobblestones, carrying a mixture of songs and music and laughing.

Garrett finished the last stitches on the soles, smiling occasionally while Erin reported to him what was going on down in the streets. It was a satisfying feeling to be able to spy on the City without anyone noticing, one of the many reasons why Garrett had chosen the clocktower as his home, something that Erin felt the same about.

Finally, he put his boots on and made some steps in place to test how they felt.

"You know, I always wanted to dance on the Samhain Eve when I was small, but I never had the chance. It was way too crowded, and there was so much food to steal, not speaking of the jewelry every dolled-up lady is carrying around on a night like this. But the beautiful music, and the fires… Kinda nice, somehow", Erin said, gazing down on the City dreamily.

"Are you sure you are not just such a bad dancer that nobody wanted to ask you out?", Garrett commented teasingly while he shuffled over the floor. Erin's head spun around and she hurried to change her dreamy expression into something as uncaring as possible.

"Oh shut up, Garrett! I don't know, I've never learned to dance. I don't really care about it, either. Dancing is something for snobbish noble girls." She turned away from the window and watched him flex his feet in place, shuffling left and right and making careful steps while he was testing his repaired soles.

"You look like a stork trying to find a frog", she commented grinning.

"I need to check whether my boots are suited for my needs before I wear them on a heist. The feeling is very important, since I need to be able to sense the surface I'm standing on through my feet. Every crack in the wall, every slippery pebble on a roof, every creaking floorboard, all of it speaks to me through my soles", Garrett informed her, jogging in place.

"And? What do your floorboards tell you?", Erin wanted to know.

"The boots feel quite good, so far. But I have to check how they feel on the long run."

"Well then, I'm not going to stop you if you want to continue running in circles all night long. It's quite a sight", Erin said, winking at him.

Garrett shot her a chiding glance, biting back a smile, and continued to make some exercises that involved a lot of little steps in place. Erin returned her gaze to the City, watching the festivities below. In the Clocktower Plaza, a group of musicians had started to play dance music, Garrett could hear, the flutes and fiddles and drums mixing with the sounds of people singing. He could not tell words apart, but the melody sounded beautiful and archaic.

"They are playing _The Star of the County Down_ , can you hear? I loved that song when I was small…", Erin commented quietly, gazing down from her seat with a longing shine in her eyes.

Garrett stopped his shuffling and looked at her. Since he still needed to test his repairs inside his apartment before he actually wore them outside and they both had to wait until dawn before they would start their heist, he might as well find something to pass the time and test his boots simultaneously. Erin's yearning gaze had given him a pang of sympathy, and he suddenly had an idea, something that went a bit beyond his usual comfort zone, but maybe it was worth a try. It could also be a good exercise for her, he mused.

He made a decision.

Garrett stepped up to Erin and cleared his throat. When she turned her head towards him, awaking from her reverie, he took a deep bow and elegantly extended one hand.

"Erin, may I have the pleasure of this dance?"

She blinked at him, taken aback. "What…? Are you kidding me, Garrett?"

"I don't see any other girl I could possibly ask out. Do you?"

Erin's mouth slowly turned into a wide grin. Her eyes glittered. "I told you that I never learned to dance, have I?"

"I'll teach you. You can't be as bad as Basso."

Erin eyed him for another moment, squinting at him with fake suspicion, but then she just smiled, accepted his outstretched hand and stood up.

"Alright… How do I do this?"

"You place your feet like his… No, a bit further apart. Then you do this…" Garrett made a complex succession of steps according to the slow rhythm of the music. "… And while you do this you turn with your partner."

Erin watched as Garrett slowly waltzed in front of her with an imaginative partner in his arms, an odd expression on her face somewhere between an amused smirk and a touched little smile. "Alright… We'll see how it goes, I guess."

"You can put your feet on mine and I'll guide you until you know the moves", Garrett suggested. Erin cautiously placed her own feet on Garrett's and allowed him to take her in his arms.

"Your left hand goes on my shoulder, the other is stretched out together with mine. And when we turn and separate for a moment, you can do a little spin."

Erin laughed when Garrett performed a very elegant spin that was normally supposed to be done by somebody with a more feminine shape. He just smirked back and beckoned her back into his arms. Erin complied grinning, putting her feet on his and Garrett took the lead. Concentrating on the melody drifting up from the City below, he carefully emphasized each move to make sure Erin would learn them. Shortly after, she got down from his feet and tried it for herself. At first, there was a certain amount of confusion, and she stepped on his feet a lot of times or stumbled over her own, but each time she laughed about his rolled eyes and sarcastic comments. Garrett found that this was surprisingly entertaining. _The Star of the County Down_ ended, another song following. The next one was a bit faster, and Garrett tried to speed up the pace a little. It worked out well, and they both swayed and turned to the rhythm of the drums and fiddles.

The night spread a blanket of inky blue over the City, the old alleyways illuminated by the orange firelight, townsfolk dancing and singing and feasting in the streets. One song followed the next, and Garrett felt that Erin enjoyed their dance so much that he simply continued. That feeling was mutual, he found, and forgot the time completely. They surrendered to the melodies, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, and over time he forgot about the other noises of the Samhain night outside as well, gazes locked on each other's faces.

Garrett didn't know how long they were dancing behind the clockface of the tower, but the full moon was shining bright and silvery when the music suddenly slowed down. The rhythm got more gentle, the flutes and harps setting the tone.

"That's _The Song of Ravens_ ", Erin whispered, listening intently.

"Luckily it doesn't sound like a raven at all. It's quite beautiful", Garrett commented quietly. They adjusted their own movements to the slow, harmonic melody. Erin was moving confidently now, placing her feet as gracefully as he did, looking incredibly beautiful when she spun and turned, her long black scarf trailing around her frame, the necklace of turquoises small dabs of color among the darkness they wore. Garrett felt the urge to hold her closer, staring deeply into her eyes. Erin did the same, resting her weight against his body, letting him take the lead. Her light blue eyes matched the color of the soft moonlight, he found, and they glittered golden from the fires down below whenever they passed the window.

Garrett slowly inclined his head until his forehead touched hers, and he saw Erin close her eyes, enjoying the gentle rhythm. He did the same, surrendering to the music and the feeling of her warm body pressed against his.

When he felt his lips on hers, he complied immediately. Erin's warm breath tickled his skin, chasing a shiver down his spine. Garrett inclined his head a little and kissed her again, this time brushing his tongue against her lips. She allowed him to deepen the kiss, her tongue curled against his, and he shivered with the sweet taste of her mouth. Erin's hands on his shoulders tightened their grip slightly, one hand crawling up his nape into his hair. Garrett let his hands wander down her back and waist, pressing her even closer.

He barely realized that they had stopped moving, completely absorbed in their kiss.

The music outside, _The Song of Ravens_ , went on, but he didn't hear it, the world forgotten. They swayed in the same spot kissing for what felt like a short eternity.

"Garrett…" Erin said softly all of a sudden, opening her eyes a bit.

Garrett didn't stop the kiss, feeling her warm breath on his lips as she spoke again.

"Garrett…", she whispered. Now he opened his eyes and returned her gaze.

"I love you, Garrett."

He forgot to breathe.

Garrett was stunned. He just stared back at her, his face deadpan. His mind was racing and empty at the same time. He had no idea how to react. What in the Trickster's name was he supposed to say? The way Erin gazed up at him told him she was waiting for him to reply something, but he didn't know what to say for the life of him.

 _Yes, I know_? Even he realized that would be more than cruel.

 _I know you loved me all the time, but I already told you that I'm probably never going to return that feeling, and you might remember that you told me you would accept that and be happy and thankful about it?_ Garrett might as well have punched her in the face. That thought alone sounded incredibly heartless.

 _You knew what you were getting yourself into?_ Dammit, that was even worse.

 _I really like your company, and I don't want to hurt you, but I don't feel that way. I want to stay alone, but I also want you to stay around, if you don't mind, and keep this going like it is now, because I like how it is?_ This was so stupid and selfish he was ashamed by his own thoughts.

 _I don't know what I feel for Erin, but there is… something_ , Garrett thought slowly. _There is something out of the ordinary somewhere inside me, but I'll be damned if I know what._

Garrett was struggling for words but he couldn't make himself say anything, so he kept staring at her helplessly.

Erin's expectant expression faltered and a mixture of all kinds of emotions danced across her features until she was left looking like he had stabbed her in the chest. She stared in his eyes with panic spreading over her face, begging him silently to say something, but he gave her no answer. He couldn't.

Erin, not taking her eyes away from Garrett, stepped away from his embrace. She slowly shook her head, unbelieving sorrow on her face. Seeing her like this was a burning pain in his heart, and he wanted so badly to say something to comfort her, but he realized there was nothing he could possibly say.

"Erin…", he managed to breathe, reaching for her.

"No", she came back, shaking her head, her voice a trembling whisper. She looked like she was in agony. "After all this time… Why do you still refuse to _see_?"

Garrett didn't understand. He just made another step in her direction even he knew it wouldn't help anything, but she turned away from him after shooting him one last glance that burned with bitter disappointment, and then she left.

Garrett stood in the middle of the clocktower's top amidst the clacking and rumbling clockwork, and it sounded just as monotonous and lifeless as he felt from inside.


	9. Chapter 9 - The Forsaken

**Chapter 9 – The Forsaken**

The following days, Garrett behaved like he always had, his hands picking locks automatically, his feet jumping nimbly across roofs and gables, his sharp eyes wary of stray guards, but he just functioned the way a clockwork functioned. Half of the time his mind felt empty and sore, the other half he thought about Erin.

Part of him could not believe she was gone.

 _Technically, I didn't do anything bad, did I?_ , he asked himself. _I've already told her how I think about relationships and she said that she could live with that._

 _Has she been lying to herself or to me?_

 _Have I been lying to her or to myself?_

His head hurt when he thought about this.

Garrett sighed and stuffed a golden medal in his loot bag, closed the safe again and trotted back through the corridor easily avoiding the guards, hopped onto the window frame, skipped across and left the mansion.

 _This was way too easy._

Listlessly, he found his way between chimneys and water towers, dropped down into an alley, waited for two overseers to pass by and soon reached the _Crippled Burrick_. Basso was in his cellar, taking notes in a book, as always. When Garrett entered through the window, he looked up, his usual roguish grin on his face, but when he saw the Thief, his smile faltered.

"Oh, Garrett, it's you." Basso sighed and carefully put the quill next to the book.

Garrett tried to ignore his business partner's gloomy look and just dropped the medal he had been ordered to steal on the table. Something told him that Basso knew exactly what had happened, however he might have found out.

"My payment?", Garrett asked curtly, trying to get this over with as soon as possible. He was not in the mood for talking.

"Here you go, take it and have fun with it. Listen, Garrett… Erin has been here, a few days past, and has asked me to cancel all missions she had previously accepted. And I tell ya, that girl did not look like she has found the gold at the end of the rainbow and thus wants to hang thievery up. Something has happened, hasn't it?" His small, dark eyes pierced right through Garrett. "What have you done?"

"… We had an argument", Garrett answered after a moment of hesitation, every word hurting him.

"Oh, is that it? Funny, because I got the impression that Erin has had enough and is now packing her bag once and for all, that's what she looked like!"

"Basso, who's side are you on?", Garrett asked annoyed, trying to keep himself calm.

" _Your_ side, you oaf!", Basso came back. Anger flared briefly in his eyes, but then he turned away and took a deep breath. When he turned to Garrett again, he looked sad. "You've done it again, haven't you?"

 _What does he even mean with that?_

"She started it", Garrett insisted and instantly regretted what he just said. He had to admit to himself that his failure to respond to Erin had probably been the breaking point. It must have hurt her beyond words. Was that why he felt so pained and guilty? In a way he had not done anything wrong. Erin had just once again made everything terribly complicated with her misplaced love confession, once again thrown him out of balance.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Basso, I don't care", Garrett lied. "I wanted to live alone and now she finally doesn't bother me anymore. I don't need an overly attached shadow weighing me down." Even as he said it the words sounded hollow and empty. "She is much better off without me too, I think."

"You think so, huh? Well, you certainly made sure she's had her fill of your damn aloofness."

Garrett shrugged helplessly. Had he been trying to convince Basso or himself? He didn't know.

Basso sighed. "Fine. Ya wanna hear my honest opinion, from friend to friend?"

"Not today, thank you." Garrett spun around and climbed on the window ledge. He felt like he had had more than he could take. Basso spoke behind his back.

"Master Thief, eh? Poor, stupid Garrett… Erin could have been the most precious piece of your collection."

Garrett briefly froze in his motion and slightly turned his head, peeking back over his shoulder.

"Really, Basso? A joke about a stolen heart? Pretty hackneyed, don't you think? She's not an object, she's a human with feelings."

Garrett continued to climb through the window onto the street. He tried to ignore what Basso called after him, tried to concentrate on the sound of rain falling down on the dirty cobblestones, but still, he heard it:

"So are you, Garrett, but you seem to forget that."

* * *

 _I need to see if she's really gone_ , Garrett said to himself, running unseen over the rooftops to the South Quarter. _Maybe she's still there, and just cancelled her missions to take a break._

He shook his head at his own thoughts.

Garrett passed the wooden gate that separated Stonemarket and the South Quarter and jogged through the rain over to the small channels that crossed the rows of miserable looking houses ad ramshackle huts. He dropped down onto the wooden catwalks lining the gullies, carefully avoiding the brackish water, made a few turns and finally, after having passed another gate that was more rust than iron, stood in front of Erin's mill.

Part of him didn't want to go inside, afraid of what he might find.

Garrett tried to pull himself together and nimbly climbed through the secret opening in the wall, avoiding her traps.

Something caught his attention while he carefully sneaked between the pressure pads. Something was wrong… He daintily put one foot on the pad, stepped down with all his weight and arched his back to avoid the arrow from the wall mechanism.

There was none.

The traps were deactivated.

Blinking in disbelief, Garrett picked up a piece of string and turned it in his fingers. More bits were lying around, strings and wires that had previously connected the pressure pads with the arrow mechanisms. Somebody had severed them hastily.

He knew that making himself believe that Erin hadn't done this herself was stupid, so he didn't even try.

Garrett warily approached her living room under the rumbling gear wheels of the mill. There was no light, the fireplace filled with cold ash. He looked around in search for anything that might hint the presence of a living being, like food, wine, books or used bedclothes, but all he found were empty crates, empty tables and empty walls.

 _Her paintings…_

Erin's paintings she had made of him were gone.

Garrett stood for a moment, his mind racing, and then quickly rushed over to the fireplace, his Primal eye ablaze, digging through the cold ashes. Just as he had feared, he found a piece of scorched paper and quickly turned it around. It was a scrap of a picture of him, some delicate lines drawn with ink still faintly forming the shape of his face, the mask pulled down, his cloak flying behind him like a shadow. His drawn likeness was smiling.

Garrett stared at the paper for a long time.

He opened his hand and watched how it gently tumbled down like a dead leaf back into the pile of ash.

 _Erin has burned her paintings._

 _I guess I can't expect her forgiveness or her return any time soon…,_ he thought bitterly.

Slowly, he stood up and trotted over to her bed. The worn-out straw mattress was still there, but her blankets and sheets were gone. Garrett flopped down on the bed and ran his hands across the surface, which was unpleasantly rough and scratchy without the soft covers. He had spent a lot of time on her bed with Erin and had enjoyed every single one of her heartbeats against his chest when she was winding under him, but he had never thought the bed could look so depressing.

Suddenly, something caught his eye. The mill was not empty, after all.

Garrett jumped up and went over to a table he had been overlooking so far since it was in a dark corner, but with his Primal eye he could see it clearly.

Erin had left the book about birds behind, the one they had stolen from the Thief Taker General's library. The book in which she had compared Garrett to a widowbird and herself to a shrike, until he had comforted her by telling her she was like a kestrel, over time turning the names of the birds into their nicknames.

The page about the widowbird was opened, the animal still magnificently beautiful and black like a piece of midnight, with its tail feathers trailing behind like a shroud of darkness. Erin's necklace was lying on the page.

Garrett blinked in disbelief as he stared at her beloved necklace of spherical turquoises, the first thing she had stolen on her very first heist with him, the only piece of jewelry she had constantly worn and never taken off unless she was forced to. It was damaged, the silver clasp being torn and bent, and one gemstone had a crack, as if she had ripped it from her neck and tossed it on the ground.

He remembered how happy Erin had been when she had found it in the Thief Taker General's office.

Garrett felt like a silent storm was raging in his head.

He slowly picked up the necklace and turned it in his hands, then he ran his fingertips over the surface of the book, across the likeness of the widowbird. Basso's voice echoed in his head.

 _Look, how do you imagine this whole thing between you and her to play out?_

Garrett had wanted to help Erin overcome her anger, her aggression, leave the pain of her past behind and become more balanced and content. Now that he thought about it, that ambitious task had worked out more than well in the past months, and it seemed Erin had made it to overcome most of her impulsive behaviors, had made it to change her flaws – not all of them, she still had a lot of rough edges, but he had too, and they were all part of her headstrong, independent personality and he liked them.

 _What have I imagined would happen after Erin had managed to get better?_

Garrett had no idea. Part of him had even believed that it would be a recipe for disaster to team up again, but, surprisingly, just the opposite had happened: He enjoyed the time with her. He enjoyed being on his own but also being able to see her every so often, admire her progress in the art of thievery, share their silent victories on heists and their intimacies in bed.

He had never thought about how it would go on in the future, something Basso had already painfully reminded him of.

Essentially, Garrett just wanted Erin to be safe, to be balanced, successful and happy.

 _Just take care you don't teach her to be unhappy, you hear me? If you do, you're going to hurt both her and yourself. Again._

Maybe she was better off without him. Wasn't everyone?

Then why did he feel like he was being slowly torn apart from inside?

 _Apparently she has made her decision…_ , Garrett thought. _But I can't make peace with it. Funny, normally it was always her that was so unbalanced…_

He smiled a mirthless, sour smile, took the book and the necklace and left the draughty, dark mill behind.


	10. Chapter 10 - Crows and Ravens

**Chapter 10 – The Difference between Crows and Ravens**

Garrett didn't know how many days passed in which he did nothing but a routine of repairs, training, exercises, stealing and looting. He felt distracted and his thoughts were elsewhere. The book about birds had been lying on his nightstand, but he found that he couldn't bear the sight and had hidden it in a shelf. Erin's broken necklace lay on his workbench, since he had not dared to stash it away as well, but he didn't know what to do with it either, so he left it there.

He slept so badly that he barely needed the kohl to darken his eyelids, often jumping awake in the middle of his sleep. The nightmares were back, terrible flashbacks of Erin's fall, her wounded, stricken form, his failure to save her, the asylum and the General's ambush that added physical to the emotional strain. The nightmares had stopped when Erin had returned to him, and he had almost thought that their reunion, his chance to make up for his mistakes, had helped to chase them away forever and clean his conscience, but now the events of the last year haunted him in his sleep once more. Garrett felt overtired and drained, and not even his thievery seemed to comfort him.

What was wrong with him? Erin surely was better off without him, so why could he not just let her go and continue like he always had? Knitting his brow whenever he thought about this, he found that should be glad about his newly restored solitude. But he wasn't.

 _It can't go on like this_ , Garrett thought after he woke up one evening after far too little sleep full of bad dreams, covered in sweat. _If there is somebody that has an answer for me, it's the Queen of Beggars._

He dressed, equipped his claw and bow and went on his way to the Old Chapel.

As Garrett crossed the graveyard that surrounded the old building, he noticed that the number of tombstones, having grown largely in the last year due to the Gloom, had not increased as far as he could tell, at least not so much. Leafless trees surrounded the yard, their black branches reaching for the sky like bony fingers. Swarms of crows were sitting in the trees, cawing and croaking hoarsely, the only sound besides his own soft footsteps on the gravel that covered the ground. The ruin of the Old Chapel loomed above the graveyard, an ancient monument probably as old as the bedrock of the City itself, still imposing and archaic with the stern statues of men in robes, holding keys, despite the broken roof and weather-beaten walls. The inside of the Chapel was faintly glowing orange with the light of candles.

Garrett found the Queen of Beggars holding court at her place at the back of the Chapel, sitting in a worn chaise longue, surrounded by a flock of her ragged but loyal subjects. Even though every single item around her, from the small table in front of her to the teacups placed on it, looked like it had seen better days ages ago, she radiated an aura of majesty. When the beggars saw Garrett enter, they quietly merged into the shadows, leaving their Queen alone with the Thief. He appreciated their discretion, but still he checked with his Primal vision whether they were actually gone, just to make sure. Somehow he had the feeling this would not be very comfortable and the last thing he needed now were eavesdroppers.

"My beggars will not bother us, child of the shadows", the blind crone commented with her slightly quavering, old voice, always a hint of mischief in her tone. "There is much begging to be done, secrets to be heard and to be brought to me, but they would never spy on their own Queen."

She extended a long, slender hand that looked like twigs covered in parchment and signaled Garrett to take a seat. He obediently sat down in a dusty armchair across from her. A small table with a halfway finished game of chess was standing between them, the Queen playing the white side. She was winning, Garrett noticed after a quick glance on the board.

The Queen of Beggars had grabbed a battered teapot and poured him a cup of tea. He carefully took it from her hands, plucked a stray hair from the surface and hesitantly tried a sip. Relieved that it actually seemed to be tea, Garrett leaned back and looked into the blind eyes of the old woman in front of him, unsure of what to expect.

"Garrett, my child… So you come to me again, to find answers", she stated gently.

Garrett nodded slowly. A second later he realized that she could not see him nod and wanted to say something, but somehow, in her own unexplainable way, she registered it and continued.

"You think about Erin again, the one thing in your life you never really were able to control… You want to know why she left, and why it hurts you so much."

"I want to forget her. I want my life to be normal again", Garrett came back. He already knew why Erin had left. Or, at least, he thought so.

The Queen of Beggars shook her head, a sad look on her face. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. You think she left you because you did not return her feelings. Oh, how mistaken you are, my child!"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Your tea, child."

Garrett took another sip, not taking his eyes away from the old woman. She spoke again. "Erin was trying to help you in return for the help you offered her, but you didn't notice. She thought she had managed to melt the ice around your heart, but you disappointed her by refusing to see the cracks she made in the cold mantle you wrapped your feelings in."

" _I_ wanted to help _her_ , not the other way around", Garrett corrected, but then he broke off.

He suddenly remembered something Erin had told him in a vision before he visited the asylum, her ghostly image shrouded in poppy dust.

 _I tried to help, but you wouldn't listen_ , Garrett had said.

She had replied: _You know, I was just thinking the same thing about you._

Garrett fell silent. The Queen seemed to read his thoughts, for there was a knowing glitter in her milky, wrinkled eyes.

"I don't need anyone's help", Garrett insisted, noticing annoyed how stubborn he sounded.

"Of course not, my child. That is what you made yourself believe since you were thrown into this cruel world, that you and yourself alone were the only thing you needed to survive. And that might be true, since your are artful and cunning, Master Thief, but you need to realize that the tighter one wraps a barrier around one's heart, the more numb it becomes, until it turns into an empty hull, functioning perfectly but dead inside, and all that's left is a ghost."

"I've been a ghost all my life", Garrett whispered, desperately trying to keep calm.

The Queen shook her head. "You were, Garrett. But then Erin came into your withdrawn little world, and breathed some life into the ghost you turned yourself into, and you refuse to feel the cracks in that shield you hide your feelings behind, pushing her away over and over again. That is why she left, seeing that you don't allow yourself to feel even after all this time. And that is what is causing your pain."

Garrett didn't know what to reply. While the Queen had spoken, a mixture of panic, denial and, to his great confusion, realization was swirling inside his mind. His hands trembled slightly, he noticed. He grabbed the teacup tighter.

The Queen of Beggars sighed and turned her gaze to the broken roof through which the stars could be seen on the late evening firmament, small silvery dots on a blanket the color of ink and copper. Garrett blinked. She couldn't see the stars, so why bother?

"Do you know the difference between crows and ravens?", she asked him suddenly.

Baffled by the sudden change of topic, Garrett shook his head. They both were just black birds to him, and he had never really bothered about the difference between them.

"Look at the crows, my child. They live in big swarms, hundreds of them, a noisy, messy flock, but that is what they need. Crows love company, they cannot live alone. They need other crows around them, to share food with each other and to fight about it at the same time, to defend themselves against the evils of the world with their sheer masses." The Queen indicated the swarm of crows Garrett had already seen in the trees around the graveyard.

"Now, my child, look at this raven up there. I'm sure you can see it with your sharp eyes." Garrett focused and actually saw the bird she was referring to, circling high above the City. She went on.

"Ravens live alone. They do not like swarms, masses, noise and confinement, but they do not need other ravens either. They are stronger and more cunning than the common crows and very well able to defend themselves against any foe."

 _I think I prefer ravens_ , Garrett thought.

"But ravens eventually grow tired of the endless lonely circles, and find themselves a partner. That is the only exception, the only other being they tolerate as their companion. Ravens don't always fly together and are still often seen alone, but they know their partner is always there, waiting faithfully for them to return to their nest."

The Queen of Beggars turned her gaze away from the sky and back to Garrett, who sat across from her with his cold tea in his hands. He knew exactly what she was going to say.

"You think that I'm a raven."

"You both are. Erin already knows, but you… You haven't accepted it yet, Garrett."

"I prefer to remain a lonely raven", he said, but the words tumbled automatically out of his mouth. He was deeply lost in thought.

"You can either remain lonely, and grow even colder inside, or part with your old habit and be lonely together with Erin. Your choice, Garrett", the Queen said quietly, turning to her chessboard and carefully moving a piece.

"Well, it doesn't really matter, since she's left the City", Garrett heard himself say.

"Of course she has, the poor child…"

Garrett noticed that her attention was fully focused on the chessboard, and he felt that the audience was over. The placed the cup on the table, took a little bow and left the cathedral, not sure if he was feeling better or worse. He certainly felt different.

Outside on the graveyard, his gaze wandered over the cawing flock of crows again, one noisy mass of black feathers, a large swarm, huddling between the branches of the trees. Then he searched the sky for the lonely raven. He soon found it again and followed the large, black bird with his gaze.

 _Apparently this fellow here has made the decision to stay alone_ , he mused.

As if the raven had been waiting for him to think this, Garrett witnessed how the bird circled closer to the ground and approached the battered spire of the Old Chapel. A second raven flew up to the first one as if welcoming it, and they circled around each other for a while before they landed both on the top, sitting together in a nest.

 _Oh, really?_

Garrett breathed in deeply and then sprinted back to his clocktower as fast as he could, feeling his lungs burn and his heart racing in his chest, drowning out his thoughts.

* * *

When he arrived at the top of the clocktower, he spent some time just standing under the clockwork for a long moment, trying to collect himself. The talk with the Queen of Beggars had the effect of being tossed into icy water on his wounded mind, hurting and biting and at the same time leaving him unpleasantly clear-headed. Slowly, realization dawned on him.

The realization brought profound sorrow.

Garrett desperately needed something to distract himself from thinking.

Feeling as if he was in a fever dream, he slowly trotted over to his loot collection and absentmindedly let his gaze wander over the paintings of Montonessi, carefully avoiding the one of the City at night with him sitting on a roof that Erin had given him. When his gaze fell on the painting he had stolen on the heist in the General's mansion, he knitted his brow. Garrett went over to his bookshelf and produced the book about birds, taking it back to his art collection, turning pages.

The painting from Harlan's mansion showed a ball society of colorful bird-people, the most prominent guest being a young lady with the head of a falcon standing slightly secluded from the other guests, dressed all in black lace, her look vigorous, proud and somewhat melancholic. It reminded him of something. After flipping through a few pages, Garrett found what he was looking for and he compared an illustration in the book with the painting.

The falcon-headed lady in black was a kestrel.

Garrett gently lifted the painting from its place and turned it around, studying the title written with the ominous yellow substance.

 _Beauty's Possibly Deadly Talons._

 _This is Erin_ , Garrett thought. _As if Montonessi had intended to paint her. I should have given it to her, it fits her so well. She would have loved it._

 _Should, yes. Missed the chance._

Garrett slowly placed the painting back on the wall and closed the book. He took it back to the shelf, pushed it between the other tomes and continued to wander through his apartment, staring into the empty air, his mind feeling numb and sore at the same time.

 _This has happened before…_

 _I lost Erin once and only when she almost died I realized how much I missed her, and now it happened again._

 _It really needs to come to the worst before I see that, doesn't it?_

Garrett wandered along his workbench covered in tools, oily rags, screws and arrows. He noticed Erin's broken necklace he had placed there and gently picked it up, feeling the cool, smooth turquoises on his palms. He picked up a side cutter and carefully severed the necklace to remove the broken clasp and the damaged gemstone. Turning the bent silver clasp in his hands, he went over to his forge and lit a fire, picking up a small hammer.

 _I missed my chance, and now she's gone forever._

Garrett softened the silver in the forge's heat and formed the clasp into the shape of a ring, carefully evening out the surface with gentle strokes of his hammer. When he left the ring to cool for a while, he turned to the cracked turquoise and slowly removed a chunk, working the rough edges with a fine file until the fragment had the shape of a perfect oval cabochon. Heating the silver ring again, Garrett inlaid the turquoise into the ring, fastening it carefully. When he was almost done, he turned the ring and used a thin hallmark to carve two words into the inside.

 _Nobody ever cared about me, so I swore to never care about anyone. But Erin did care about me, and I cared about her…_

He slowly turned the ring he had made from parts of Erin's broken necklace in his hands, a simple, matt silver ring with an oval turquoise and a fine engraving, but he didn't try it on. Garrett just placed it in a pocket in his shirt close to his heart.

 _Thievery has been all that had mattered to me_ , he thought as he wandered down the stairs to where his bed stood between supply crates and shelves.

 _Challenge is all that drives me forward, but still I can get hungry, and I need to eat_ , he thought as he took off his clothes.

 _Stealing is my freedom, and heists are my life, but still I can get tired, and I need to sleep_ , he thought as he stepped in front of a shelf. His hands found Erin's torn ceremonial dress he had placed there half an eternity ago.

 _I am a Thief with all my heart and soul, but still I can feel alone, and I need…_

Garrett laid down on the bed, burying his face in Erin's dress, his hands trembling as they clenched the soft fabric, and he thought: _… to love_.

* * *

"Come on Robert, you can have my rations for three days in a row and my leftover opium, but just go in there for me!"

"Shit, no! I'd rather shoot myself in the knee, which is probably just what's going to happen to you if you make a wrong move", the other guard, whose name was Robert, replied to the first one. The first guard was all in a fluster, standing in front of the Thief Taker General's private office, and he was about to deliver a message. Bad news, it was, and given the mood the General had been in lately, he would not wave them aside with a smile.

"Please?", the first guard, who was named Trevor, tried again, but Robert just shook his head.

"Good luck, poor bastard", he said and shoved the unlucky messenger through the door with a gloating smirk.

Trevor heard the door slam shut behind him, and it sounded like his mourning bells.

The Thief Taker General stood in front of his desk brooding over countless documents, his broad back turned on the guard. The only lights in the room came from two fire baskets, casting a flickering, reddish light and painting quivering shadows across the walls.

Trevor was relatively new in the City Watch and therefore only rumors reached his ears about the latest events, but as far as he knew _somebody_ had had the effrontery and arrogance to break into the General's mansion, stealing a small fortune worth of goods, and had destroyed a lot of seemingly very important documents. The Thief Taker General had been inflamed with rage, and his normal state of irascibleness, to put it mildly, had not been improved by that. One never really knew when exactly the General's seemingly jesting mood tilted, turning him into a keg of gunpowder, ready to explode at the tiniest of sparks. A lot of guards had already suffered from his fits of anger. Trevor had even seen how the General shot a rookie in the chest because he had dropped the Thief Taker's sword.

"What's the matter?", the General barked without looking up from his desk.

Trevor swallowed. The news he was about to bring would not sweeten his mood.

"S…Sir, Mr. Thief Taker General, Sir, I have news concerning the Watch inspection on the Western Trading Company."

Now, the General turned around. His greasy shoulder-length hair framed a face that radiated impatience and professional conceit, his mouth under the thick mustache smiling. It was not a pleasant smile.

"Ah, very well. And? Any traces of the Master Thief?"

"N… No, sir. Nothing. No traces of any kind of theft, in fact. A sailor claims to have heard that something heavy dropped into the harbor at one point. The Officer thinks it might have been some crate, but the chances that all the missing goods were lost in the sea at once is very unlikely. Still there was no proof for a thief to be found, and no clues or evidence", Trevor reported, trying to make his voice sound steady. He failed.

The General's eyes were daggers made of ice.

He turned around and wiped the papers from his table with an enraged roar. Trevor flinched and really wished he could turn invisible.

"Where are you hiding, you filthy little rat?", the General screamed at the open air. He stood for a while, breathing heavily, then he started wandering around the room.

"Why are you still here? Get out of here before I test my new bolts on your arse!"

Trevor left at the speed of sound, thanking all gods.

* * *

Thadeus Harlan was very proud of his unofficial title, the Thief Taker General. He had worked hard for this, gotten his fingers dirty very often. He had _earned_ it, but not entirely. There was one certain thief he had never been able to lay his hands on: Garrett, the so-called Master Thief, always slipping out of his iron grip like a slimy eel, and he was sure that it had been him who destroyed all the evidence on his own crimes that the General had collected so meticulously over all those years. Ruined the Thief Taker's work.

What that damn arrogant rat had done had wounded Thadeus' pride deeply. Furthermore, it had undermined not only his authority, but also his reputation. His men were talking about the incident, at least the ones that had survived the severe punishment that followed their incompetence when it came to guarding their General's mansion. Talk was that he was getting sloppy. Talk was that the Master Thief was too smart for him.

He would not let this go unpunished.

Garrett needed to be taken care of, once and for all. There would be justice, and he would have his revenge. He wanted to see Garrett die, his hands around his throat, hear his last breath, look him in his dying eyes when his pathetic life was draining from him.

The General thoughtfully continued prowling around his office. As inconvenient as it was that all his notes and evidence on Garrett had been destroyed, the General still had most of it in his mind. He knew the Master Thief inside out, and damn him if he couldn't think of a way to lure that oversized rat in a trap.

The last time he almost had caught the Master Thief was when he accompanied Orion in his somewhat ridiculous ritual, this strange thing with the ominous force they called _Primal_. If Orion hadn't been the crux of the matter in the whole affair, concerning the Plague, the Baron's falling popularity and that damn Graven revolution, he would not have followed Orion down that ruined pile of debris he called the Hidden City. The General had had a hunch that Garrett was involved in the whole affair, as he always was when there was something pestering the City, and lo and behold, there the rat king came, right into the General's waiting arms.

Thadeus gritted his teeth at the memory of their duel. If Garrett hadn't been cheating in that perfidious and chickenhearted way instead of facing the General like a man, he was sure he would have crushed that little parasite like an ant under his boot.

But why had he come? Because of the girl? No, that was impossible. Erin might have been a wanted criminal in the City, but Garrett was known to always work alone and never really cared for his thieving colleagues, and he would never risk his life for one of them. Maybe he had had to settle a score between him and Orion, some kind of overdue payment or something of that nature… Yes, that must be it. Greed alone had always been what had driven Garrett forward. The General remembered how he almost had captured Garrett as he was trying to lift the Great Safe. Both the kidnapping of his fence Basso, who still refused to admit that he was working with Garrett, the fat liar, as well as the prospect of breaking the safe, had been enough to lure Garrett into the trap.

It wouldn't work a second time. The General needed better bait… Something so ridiculously precious and alluring that the Master Thief would be unable to resist.

Thadeus Harlan picked up a pen and wrote a note to the curator of the famous Wieldstrom Museum in Auldale, and asked him about a new exhibition addressing the City's aristocracy's history. Then, the Thief Taker General wrote a second note, this time to on the royal bursar, who was responsible for safekeeping the over 800 year-old crown jewels of Lord Laurence of House Black, the first Baron of the City. The General asked whether the crown of said Lord was still in the hands of the bursar, and how he would like it if this priceless artifact would be part of an upcoming exhibition.

Satisfied with his work, the Thief Taker General smiled, leaning back in his chair. Garrett would not be able to resist this allurement.

He went to bed shortly after, not looking forward to it. Ever since the cowardly attack on his manor, the General had had the feeling that something was lurking in his sleeping chamber, watching him from the shadows. When he got into his bed he could not get rid of the nightmarish sensation that the Master Thief was hidden under the bed, waiting for him to fall asleep, laughing at him in his dreams. Somehow, that sneaky rat managed to haunt him even in his sleep, prowling around his bed and filling the air with his nefarious stink while Thadeus tossed and turned, unable to find rest. He swore by his life that this would stop soon. The General would get rid of Garrett, no matter the cost.

* * *

A/N: You wanted a longer chapter, you get a longer chapter. It could be that chapter 11, which I'm currently working on, is going to be the finale, but I'll decide that later. :)

I don't know about you, but stories that just go on forever and slowly fade into nothingness because of lack of motivation from the author or something make me sad. I will never lose my love for Thief, Garrett or the pair I'm writing about, but I really, really love the two so much that I want this story to be self-contained and complete, with a proper finale. It derserves it.

Oh, and I promise the next chapter will be even longer!


	11. Chapter 11 - Clipped Wings

**Chapter 11 – Clipped Wings**

It didn't take Garrett long to find out about the crown of Lord Laurence of House Black being exhibited in the Wieldstrom Museum of Auldale. He overheard some guards talking about it with an employee of the General while the Thief was eavesdropping from above, hidden between the wooden rafters of an old storehouse. He had been out to look for a painting that was supposed to be hidden in the dusty back area of the storehouse in the Dayport where the artist had been active in, but the painting had turned out to be conspicuous by its absence when he found out that the artist had moved his stash to a different place. After having frowned at the dust-free rectangular spots on the floor where the paintings had been stashed some time ago, Garrett had climbed up in the cobwebbed rafters of the building, intending to leave and find something else to keep his troubled mind from drowning out his thoughts. The conversation the guards had with the General's employee close to the storehouse almost made it.

Apparently, there was a new exhibition in the Museum to be opened soon, now that the repairs on the damaged building had been finished, and the ancient crown was supposed to be the glorious center of it.

Garrett desperately needed a mission.

 _I should do a little more research on that crown, keep my eyes and ears open… Maybe this helps to clear my head. I should ask Basso about the crown._

* * *

When Garrett told Basso about what he had heard, the fence's heart sank to his boots. He had been very worried about his thieving friend as of lately, and something about this new exhibition being announced all of a sudden set alarm bells ringing in his head. The Thief Taker General was said to be even more fervent and short-tempered than usually now that the Baron was dead and the succession not yet clear. Nobody really controlled his actions, something Basso and other criminals of the City had already painfully noticed. And now this, an exhibition of a ridiculously precious artifact out of nowhere. It reeked of a trap. Combined with Garrett's current bad state Basso feared for the worst.

"You see that this is a trap, don't you?", Basso asked desperately. "It couldn't possibly more obvious!"

"Doesn't matter. I'm going to steal it."

"Garrett, no! Shit, maybe this isn't even true! My little birds haven't told me about no crown yet."

The Thief just elbowed his way to Basso's desk wordlessly and flipped through the pages of his account book in which he listed all the missions to be assigned. Basso tried to stop him. "Hey, get your paws out of there!"

Garrett threw him a tired, annoyed glance, his finger pointing to a page with an entry that said _Crown of Lord Laurence, original in Museum. Fucking priceless_.

"Never heard of it, have you?", Garrett asked, lifting an eyebrow. Basso sighed.

"It's just a note I made, not a mission! Look, Garrett…"

"Why did you want to hide this from me?"

How was Basso supposed to explain this? Garrett had been a nervous wreck since Erin had left again after their argument. He barely slept, Basso could tell. The black kohl was not necessary to darken his eyelids, and his voice sounded strained and gravelly. It painfully reminded Basso of how unsettled and out of his mind the Thief had been when the Gloom had taken over the City, while he was trying to find out what had happened to Erin. Once more, Garrett looked weary, burnt out, distracted and sad, even though he tried his best to hide this behind his usual imperturbable expression. He could not fool Basso, though. Erin's loss had again thrown him terribly out of balance.

 _And he has been so close, that damn stubborn pigheaded oaf…_

Basso sighed. He had had his fill of relationships with women and preferred to remain unbound, free to jump from bed to bed as he pleased, but he also could see how _good_ Erin and Garrett had been for each other. Erin had matured greatly after her return, and despite, or maybe because of their personal edges, the two Thieves were completing each other, supporting each other, and whenever they were separated doomed to unhappiness. They belonged together, he had felt so since the very beginning when he had decided to introduce Erin to Garrett. The deep connection between them was something incredibly special, and Basso was pretty pissed at Garrett for refusing to see this and for throwing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity away, for the umpteen time. He had really hoped for Garrett to finally come to peace with himself and his feelings for Erin and all that stuff, but as talented as he was, dealing with the presence of emotions was something his friend was simply terrible at.

"Garrett, I hate to say this, but you need to take a rest! Rork's teeth, when have you slept properly the last time? You look like you're going to faint at any second."

"I'm going to go. If you don't want the crown I'm keeping it for myself."

"For fuck's sake, Garrett, get it together! I'm not sure whether you are punishing yourself for what has happened between you and the girl or whether you are just trying to run away from your own thoughts by overstraining yourself, _but_ , and I'm just saying this because I'm worried for you, _you need to stop_!"

"This has nothing to do with her. It's about who I am. I'm stealing that crown." The look Garrett shot Basso was filled with stubborn defiance and burning pain equally.

Basso shook his head. "You need this that badly, don't you? Shit, I'm telling you, it's a trap, obviously! The crown in the museum might as well be a forgery to lure you in the General's waiting arms, and what good does it do you then? You're going to get yourself killed!"

"And I thought you were the best informed man in the City. As it happens, I know that the crown in the Wieldstrom Museum is indeed a fake, while the original is being held in the Tower of Auldale Bridge."

"Shit, _what_? How do you know that?"

"I was listening", Garrett answered simply. "If the fake crown in the Museum was a trap, it wouldn't matter, because I'm going to the Auldale Bridge and lift the real one."

"I thought the bridge had collapsed during the Graven revolution!"

"It had, but only partly. I've been going across it several times already, the repairs are going well and some parts as well as the Tower are still intact."

Basso was not convinced. "So… And what if _that_ one is a trap?"

"Basso, are you getting paranoid?"

"Garrett, look… I have a bad feeling about this. It's more than fishy, and it's not the river for once."

Garrett didn't answer, he just shouldered past Basso and started to open the window. Basso had to resist the urge to just grab Garrett by the sinewy shoulders and shake some senses into him, but he knew exactly that everything he could possibly do or say would go unheeded. Still, he tried one last time.

"Garrett, you are not in the condition to do this. Taking risks without a second thought is not you. You are out of your mind! Please, buddy, listen to me. What if something bad happens to you?"

"Then it happens. Who would care?"

" _I_ would care, dammit!", Basso came back. "And Erin would care, too!"

Garrett turned his head and gazed back over his shoulder, and Basso flinched in shock when he saw the profound sorrow in his eyes. Empty, sad, begging for relief. He had never seen the Thief this stricken.

"You would, but she would not. I made sure she wouldn't miss me." His voice was as ghostly has he looked.

With that, Garrett turned around and climbed through the window, leaving Basso behind in his office. Basso wondered if this was the last time he had seen his friend.

* * *

Like a shadow in a moonless night, Garrett prowled over the rooftops hidden in the murky twilight a few hours before the sun was rising. The old houses close to Auldale rushed past his sides as he found his way between gables and smoking chimneys that left white shrouds in the cold air of the night. The roof tiles were covered with dead leafs and frost and glittered under his feet whenever he passed a lit window.

 _The nights are going to get even colder than that soon_ …, Garrett mused as he jumped gracefully across the gap between two buildings and skittered up the wall of the next one with the help of his claw. He was almost there. The Bridge of Auldale already peeked over the rooftops, a building almost as old as the first parts of the City, but overhauled multiple times as the centuries passed. With the repairs after the Graven revolution that had caused large parts of the bridge to turn into a mess of debris on the bottom of the river, a night Garrett remembered just too well, it was going to change its look once again. Commercial trespassing was not allowed yet, but the Tower was still standing, and as far as Garrett could imagine it was still being used as a place for conferences. The nobles liked consistency and symbolism. When Garrett pulled himself up on a higher roof he could see it, the sturdy pillars of the bridge made of stone keeping up the remains of elegantly swung barrels and parapet, mirrored in the river below. The reflection of the lanterns drew golden pictures in the water. There was a milky layer of ice on the river. The winter was right around the corner.

 _It has always been so warm and comfortable with Erin beside me in my bed…_

Garrett knitted his brow and dashed over to the next rooftop, rolling on the other side to keep up his momentum and slid down a gable through a hole into an old attic.

 _Stop this. Forget her_ , he chided himself.

 _I wish it was that easy…_

Garrett drew his bow and nocked a rope arrow, stretched the bowstring until his arm hurt from the tension and shot an arrow into the gable of a broad balcony. He climbed up quickly and took a moment to catch his breath. He was incredibly tired and the blood droned in his head from the running, but there it was, the Tower of Auldale Bridge.

The Tower of Auldale was located right in the centre of the bridge that connected the most expensive quarter of the City with the rest, spanning over the broad river. To reach it, Garrett had taken a route over the roofs close to the river, a place he liked to call _Thieves' Highway_ due to the closeness of the old buildings that huddled together like chicks under a hen, making it easy for him to quickly reach his destination without being seen by eyes down on the street.

 _This is just the place Erin and I have met before the accident_ , Garrett remembered sourly. Shaking his head and clenching his fists, he grimly focused on the path that lay before him. When he reached the foot of the bridge, he opened his inner eye and analyzed the bridge with his gaze. There were City watchmen with crossbows and torches patrolling on the deck, small moving dots of light like a flock of fireflies. It was hard to concentrate as worn out as Garrett felt and he had to blink a few times to keep his sleepy eyes open, but he tried his best to memorize the complicated walking patters of the watchmen. He came to the conclusion that they moved more or less randomly, probably just as tired as he was.

 _It would be quite easy to sneak past them until I reach the tower… But there might be a shortcut_ , he thought. He was crouching on the thin railing of a balcony like a bird of prey, flexing his fingers to prevent them from getting stiff in the chilly air, eyeing the thick suspension cables that ran from the deck of the bridge to the middle of the tower with interest. The cables swayed gently in the wind.

 _One must be either a cat or suicidal to walk across these cables_ , Garrett mused. _Or me._

Garrett jumped down and spread his arms as he was falling. When his feet hit the thick cable, he bent his legs and used his outstretched arms to keep his balance. There was a critical moment of flailing about as he tried to remain standing on the cable like a ropedancer instead of hanging from it, but he made it. Not as elegantly as he was used to, though.

Blaming his clumsiness on his lack of sleep, Garrett carefully placed one foot in front of the other and started sneaking across the cable. It was made out of steel wires twined together to a thick rope. The soft soles of his repaired boots allowed him to judge the traction of the material he was standing on perfectly, but the cable still was slippery as an eel and the wind didn't help the situation to become less of a struggle. His cloak was snapping in the wind like a black banner. Down below him, Garrett could see the reflections of the City houses in the muddy river water, misty silhouettes against a sky that slowly turned from a grayish blue to a soft amber, and the guards patrolling, oblivious to the Thief high above them as he made his way to the Tower of Auldale. The cable connected to the Tower at medium height, and as Garrett reached the stone wall he leaned against it and took a moment to rest, his legs hurting from the tension that he had mustered to compensate for the swaying of the cable in the cold breeze. Then he climbed up to the next window and produced his lockpicks.

 _If she was here, Erin would make a joke about me getting old_ , he thought without wanting to think this, _and I would remind her that I proved her very often that I'm even more athletic than she is, and she would eye me with that suggestive smirk and bite her lip and reply something saucy, and we would have a race to see who can reach the next level first, and it wouldn't matter who would win. I would enjoy it._

Garrett gritted his teeth and suggested to himself to simply ignore the voice of his thoughts. His mind felt sore and his eyes heavy. He wanted to sleep so badly and at the same time longed for distraction, longed for anything that kept his troubled spirit occupied.

Concentrating on the lock, he opened the window and nimbly climbed through, closing it again behind him.

The inside of the Tower of Auldale was composed of countless floors connected with staircases and a lift that traversed the entire building. The lower levels consisted of more or less undecorated rooms full of equipment needed to repair the bridge and weapons for the guards, but the floors of the upper half were more interesting. In the top of the tower were vast halls used for meetings and discussions of politicians and nobles. That was where the crown was kept, Garrett reckoned. Probably just in the room under the roof, as far as he could judge based on his experience. _Nobody ever stored something important in the ground-floor._

He quickly checked his surroundings and found them empty, then he started to sneak up the next stairs. He carefully avoided the lights in the corridor, but he couldn't help but notice that there were a lot of defective lanterns.

 _Are you going to use any of those shadows, Lady Lamplight?_

 _I was just scouting ahead. I know you always like to go first._

Garrett shook his head and tried to chase the mental image of Erin's smile away that threatened to fill his hazy vision. He told himself to focus, blinking the sleepiness away. Something about all those broken lamps felt wrong. He was sure that the maintenance staff of the tower was responsible for proper lighting. Then why were there so many defect ones?

 _This is not a track of breadcrumbs laid out for visitors like me, by any chance…?_

Relying on his instincts, unpleasantly overshadowed by his fatigue, Garrett climbed up an air vent and prowled crouched over the duct than ran along the corridor under the ceiling. He did not want to use the lift since he hadn't encountered any guards or staff yet, and that felt just as suspicious as the amount of broken lamps. Ignoring the gnawing feeling of _wrongness_ in the back of his head, Garrett used his claw and rope to climb up the lift shaft, a gaping abyss above and below him, up to the next floors, slowly making his way to the top of the tower. The only sounds were his own breathing, the soft rattle of his claw against the iron and the echoes. Normally bright and awake, his senses felt dull and numb, concentrating made his head ache and his vision faltered every now and then. Two times, he almost slipped, biting back a curse.

 _I'm not in a good shape. Maybe Basso was right…_

Taking a deep breath, Garrett tried to collect himself.

 _No. It doesn't matter. I'm doing this. It's a heist. I should enjoy this._

He didn't.

His thoughts wandered off again, thinking of Erin, thinking of how her eyes glittered when they had opened a complicated safe together or distracted some guards and made off with heavy loot bags, the silent moments of utter triumph they shared. He thought of how it felt to see the soft light of flames behind the clockface of his tower when he came back from a long mission dripping with rain and chilled to the bone, just to find out that Erin had come to his tower before him to prepare a fire and warm food for his arrival, waiting for him to return so he could tell her about his heist and show her his new collectibles while she made sure he was comfortable. He thought of the look she had thrown him before she left, the disappointment in her eyes, the incredulous sadness.

Once more, Garrett was torn apart from the deep wish to explain himself.

 _What would I say if I saw her again?_

 _It doesn't matter. She is gone, and I missed my chance._

Garrett desperately tried to focus. He was so tired, his head felt like it was stuffed with wool and his hands trembled. This was getting more complicated by the second…

Suddenly, he heard voices.

Shifting his position like a squirrel on a tree trunk, Garrett hid behind a thick steel pillar and craned his neck to see where the noises were coming from. There was a room with broad glass windows on something like a small balcony right on the edge of the shaft, apparently a control room that allowed the technicians to oversee the lift. The room was illuminated so that Garrett remained hidden in the darkness.

The men inside all bore the sigil of the City watch.

 _I didn't know the safekeeping of an old museum piece was a concern of the watch_ …, Garrett mused.

He strained his ears to hear what they were talking about, but he wasn't close enough. Slowly and carefully, he leapt over to the top of the control room. He slipped through a gap in the wall of the lift shaft and soon found himself in the iron rafters of the room that turned out to be larger than expected. There were an assortment of levers, buttons and measuring instruments of all shapes and sizes in the walls surrounding a large table in the middle, but he didn't really care about any of that.

The whistling was what caught his attention.

With heavy, slow steps, always changing between the sound of thick boots and the _tick_ of a wooden walking stick, a square-shouldered man with greasy, balding hair sauntered casually into the control room, whistling an innocent melody as he did so.

The watchmen had fallen completely silent, standing at attention. The nervousness they were radiating was almost palpable.

Garrett tensed and instinctively ducked deeper into the shadows, using his black cloak to wrap himself into a shroud of darkness. His turquoise eye glowed softly as he glanced down at the man that now spoke to the guards.

It was the Thief Taker General himself.

"Touché, Basso…", Garrett muttered quietly. It seemed like his friend had been right about this being a trap.

"Alright, boys… Any signs of the big rat already?", the General asked with an unpleasant smirk on his face. The watchmen tensed visibly until one of them mustered the courage to speak.

"Not yet, Sir."

"No? Well, I can wait. The original of the crown is kept neat and tidy up in the hall under the rooftop, and the trap is ready to spring. You, you and you, you'll take position with your men around the gallery of the hall. It is round in shape with only one entrance, so that shouldn't be too hard even for oafs like you", the Thief Taker ordered.

Up in the rafters, hidden in a shroud of blackness, Garrett massaged his temples with the tips of his fingers. It took him so much concentration to keep his eyes open that he was barely able to follow what his most fervent pursuer just revealed so kindly. His legs felt shaky.

 _Awww, my poor widowbird. I have just the right thing for you…_

 _Stop it_ , Garrett chided himself. _Focus!_

 _How does that feel? Good, huh?_

Garrett swayed a step to the side, almost dropping from the rafters. His head jerked up and he blinked a few times.

 _Alright. Crown in the top room, some guards to take care of. I need a distraction to keep the watchmen occupied elsewhere…_ , he thought, trying to remember what he had just learned.

 _Oh, you like that, don't you, widowbird? How about this…_

Garrett stubbornly shook his head and moved around in the rafters, looking for an opportunity to create a distraction. If he could make it to lure that small army away from the top of the tower for a while, they wouldn't be in the hall when he went there to lift the crown. It needed to be something urgent enough to make them leave their post, he knew. A suspicious noise from a dark corner would not suffice. The Thief regarded a panel of levers and buttons that seemed to control the lift with interest, especially since the cable of it lead directly to where the lift was suspended in its bracket.

Garrett waited for the Thief Taker General and his men to leave the room, then he drew his bow.

 _They are waiting for me to step right in the trap. Well, it would be very impolite to not comply with the request, wouldn't it?_ , he thought as he nocked an arrow and climbed back into the lift shaft. _It's just that I'm going to change the odds a little…_

Garrett took a deep breath in and released it again. He flexed his fingers once more and mustered all the concentration he could. A rapid succession of almost casually and still precisely performed movements followed, each one trained a million times. Six arrows found their target, and a number of things happened.

At first, a blast arrow hit the inside of the lift and exploded, turning it into a cage filled with wildfire. Secondly, the bracket that held the lift up opened and the burning lift nosedived towards the bottom of the shaft like a metal shooting star. Three arrows hit a random assortment of buttons on the control panels, causing a number of false alarms in different levels of the Tower at the same time, and a final arrow hit the fire alert in the control room. The noise the falling lift produced combined with the shrilling of the alarm bells was earsplitting.

Garrett slipped back into the control room that was slowly filling with the thick smoke from the lift shaft, using his mask to shield himself against the fume, and waited for the first coughing guards to come rushing in.

"Dammit, where did that alarm come from?"

"Floors four, six and eight. Think that's the Thief?"

"Has to be. Split your men up and get him! If we let that rat get away the General will take it out on us!"

"What about the burning lift?"

"He probably set it on fire to distract us. Not gonna take the bait! Now go, take your men down there and find that taffin' bastard!"

 _That means a lot less men to take care of when I reach the top._

Garrett left the control room and made his way up to the top of the Tower, occasionally pressing into a dark corner to allow some alerted guards to run past him to the lower floors where the false alarm was coming from. It was not his most elegant move, he had to admit to himself, but the sheer number of guards turning their attention to a single room just waiting for him to enter was nothing he wanted to deal with. Now, their attention was elsewhere. The trap was disarmed.

When he sneaked over the soft dark blue carpet up the last flight of stairs that led to the top room of the tower right under the roof, Garrett strained his ears to scan the hall before he entered, trying to listen for any persons left in there. His Primal eye was ablaze, smoldering turquoise, as he visualized the hall in his mind. Garrett judged that it was empty and carefully opened the door.

 _Sleep well, Garrett._ He could almost feel Erin's gentle fingertips on his skin as her hands cupped his face and she pressed a soft kiss on his lips. It had always made him smile how she avoided wishing him a good night when they went to bed when the sun rose and instead just wished him a good sleep, huddled against each other.

 _Yes, sleep… Just for a minute…_

A sudden attack of tiredness made him sway a few steps to the left and he almost slammed into a wall. Shaking his head and blinking heavily, Garrett forced his strained body to sneak along the walls of the room as gracefully as possible despite his fatigue. The high hall in the top of the tower was completely round with a circle of columns made of black marble surrounding the center. Thick black curtains were draped between the large windows on all sides through which the faint light of the rising dawn was coming through. Despite that, the room was murky except for a small pedestal right in the middle, which was illuminated by a spotlight in the ceiling.

And there it was, the 800 year-old crown of Lord Laurence of House Black, the first Baron of the City.

 _It looks less spectacular than I hoped. In fact, it looks like it's 800 years old. Should have expected that._

Garrett shot another glance around the room and still couldn't perceive any signs of danger, so he went closer to the crown and allowed his eager hands to gently lift it up to take a look at it. Despite its age it was a remarkably elegant crown, encrusted with a patina resulting of the centuries it had seen. Some rather dull rubies and emeralds as well as a large diamond that still sparkled with ancient fire were inlaid in the front. Lord Laurence of House Black had been killed in a very peculiar and spectacular way and still had founded the very first dynasty in a long succession of Barons of the City, as Garrett knew from books. Just taking into account the aged material this crown was made of and the level of artistry, it was not very fancy to look at, but the historical meaning and its cultural value made the crown simply invaluable.

Garrett couldn't help but smile a small smile, but he completely lacked the usual exciting thrill of stealing that normally followed such a discovery.

His brow knitted. Something felt wrong… And it was not just the burning feeling of emptiness that was painfully gnawing at his mind. Something about the way the crown felt under his touch was disturbing.

 _I need to be sure._

Garrett reached into a pocket on his belt and produced a small dropper bottle. He gently laid the crown back on the pedestal and carefully placed a tiny drop of acid on the edge of the ancient piece.

The acid was etching a fizzing stain into the metal.

 _This is no gold…_

 _The crown is a fake._

Garrett swayed. His head throbbed with pain and he had trouble standing upright.

The Thief Taker General apparently had placed the real crown in the Museum and the fake in the Tower, spreading word that it was just the other way around. And Garrett had come for the supposed original up in the Tower of the still partly ruined Auldale Bridge high above the river with no way to escape. If it had been the original, it would have been worth the risk, but for a _forgery_ …

Garrett smiled a sour, mirthless smile. _Fool's gold…_ The irony was heartbreaking.

Then, he heard the whistling.

One of the thick black curtains slid back and revealed a narrow passageway hidden behind a secret door. It was so small it barely was visible even when the door was open. Some officers of the City watch armed with crossbows and swords swarmed out, their weapons pointed at Garrett. Behind them, the Thief Taker General stepped out from the shadows, whistling his smug melody.

"Welcome, Garrett, welcome!", he roared with a voice that was dripping with fake amicability. Laughing, the General swaggered closer to the center of the room, swinging his walking stick. He signaled his men to withdraw. Garrett watched the guards retreat into the background, but he also noticed how they positioned themselves on the gallery of the hall, ready to fire from above.

"See, boys, just like I told you. No rat in this world can resist a bait like this, especially not the rat king himself", the General went on, addressing the guards but still keeping his piercing gaze locked on Garrett. His mouth under the thick mustache smiled, but his eyes burned with hatred. He spread his arms.

"Come on, Garrett, where are your manners? Don't you want to compliment me how ingeniously I set up this exciting show for you? Did you notice how subtly I passed you the information that this place was where the original crown was being held, while it was the fake the whole time? I even allowed you to perform your little distraction, even though you overdid it a bit. Something simpler would have sufficed and you would not have encountered any guards on your way up here, but no, the Master Thief himself needs to light half the Tower on fire to announce that he is going to grace me with his presence, does he not?"

Garrett just stared back at the General, unable to move, barely listening to his ramblings.

"Garrett, you are so predictable. Arrogant, presumptuous, greedy. Greed is what drives you forward, greed alone. But greed is a sin, Garrett, and you must be punished for your sins." The General took position, revealing the small but devastating crossbow strapped to his wrist. "Officers, I command you to not take any action while I'm dealing with this oversized rat here. I wish to settle this matter between him and me alone."

Some instinct in the cloudy back of Garrett's head told him to register the positions of the remaining guards hidden in the background, told him to look for a way to escape. His head was hurting so badly and all he was able to think about was his sorrow, his feeling of loss and the exhaustion that threatened to overwhelm him. He didn't care about the General's insulting speech. Garrett was going to worm his way out of this, one way or another. And if not? What did it matter? The Queen of Beggars had regarded him as a savior of the City during the crisis, but he didn't see that in himself, and never would. Most people wanted him dead. Nobody would miss him, except the people that profited from his skills. Erin would not miss him. Nothing made sense any more.

 _Fool's gold…_

He felt dead inside.

Garrett answered the Thief Taker General's victorious smirk with such an utterly indifferent and absentminded stare that the General interrupted his speech. When he saw that his dramatic monologue had not the effect on his worst enemy that he had hoped for, his grin turned into a cold, hateful glare.

"What…? Oh, of course! The Master Thief himself is way too confident in his perfidious skills to care for anything, is that it?", the General asked dangerously slow. "You think you're going to slime your way out of my justice again, don't you? Well, think again, Garrett!"

When the first crossbow bolt shot past his face so closely that Garrett felt the airflow on his cheek, he finally jerked into motion and quickly made a roll to the side to escape the next bolt. He heard the sharp impact of the projectile in the wall behind him as he skittered closer to the edge of the circular hall, ducking behind a column. The General laughed triumphantly as he fired one bolt after the next, always missing the Thief by a hair's breadth.

Garrett blinked heavily, trying to keep himself awake. Every muscle of his body screamed for sleep, for a moment of rest, his mind sore with the desire to forget, to surrender to the void. Only his sharp instincts prevented him from a sudden death through a crossbow bolt as the General rained a hail of arrows on him. Quick as a fleeing rabbit, Garrett rolled and ducked from one cover to the next, sticking to the shadows and using the columns as shields. Small clouds of marble dust emerged whenever a bolt hit them, his ears ringing from the noise of the impact. Garrett tried to find the secret room in which the guards and the General had been hiding, but it was not to be opened from the hall he was standing in, and his Primal eye revealed no other way out than the main door, where five of the guards were positioned. The other guards, as he could see while he darted over to the shelter of another column, were standing motionlessly on the gallery. They were not being a threat to him as long as their General was playing his game with Garrett like a cat with a mouse in a barrel, but he knew as soon as he would make an attempt to get past them they would make use of their blades.

Garrett unfolded his bow and nocked an arrow. All of his fire arrows and his only blast arrow had been used up for his distraction earlier, and he was left with regular and water arrows. He quickly spun around and shot an arrow at the General's arm as he dashed from one cover to the next. The arrow didn't miss its target, but it only hit thick steel armor. The General roared with anger, but he didn't seem to be injured. Garrett watched the guards' reaction on his attack and noticed that their hands immediately went to their crossbows.

 _As soon as I harm a hair on the General's balding head, they will turn me into a pincushion_ , he thought sourly.

"Scared, huh, Master Thief?", the General roared as he fired another bolt that barely missed Garrett's leg. "Come and face me like a man, coward!"

 _I need to do something about him_ , Garrett realized, gasping for breath. His strength was leaving him and he felt that he wouldn't be able to continue this mindless chase much longer.

He stepped forth from his cover, body tensed and ready to dodge the next projectile.

"Bold words for a man who has need of two dozen bodyguards in case he actually gets attacked by his opponent", Garrett remarked. "Is that what you call a fair fight?"

"My men are just here to make sure you don't _cheat_ again by slipping into the next best rat hole, craven as you are!", the Thief Taker General came back.

 _No, they are going to shoot me as soon as I get too close to you_ , Garrett thought, but he kept quiet. He knew the General's short temper and didn't consider it a good idea to enrage him even more. Still, Garrett had no idea how he could possibly win this farce of a duel. It was only a matter of time until he would literally fall asleep right where he was standing or until the General finally scored a hit. The guards blocking the only way out were basically pushing him into the General's arms while at the same time preventing their boss from getting harmed by Garrett. Of course, he could place an arrow in the General's eye quick as thought, finish him once and for all, but then he would die too, skewered by a hail of crossbow bolts from above.

 _Is this the end of me?_

Garrett swayed in the same spot, barely noticing the Thief Taker General's victorious laughter. He felt like he was dreaming, his head droning faintly, his vision blurred. His gaze slowly wandered away from the General's insane grimace, up to the gallery, where the first rays of the rising sun were casting their soft light on the black marble. As if he was in a fever dream, he believed to see Erin sneaking gracefully over the window ledge, her slender frame almost translucent, a ghostly memory of a treasure he never knew he had until he had lost her. He wished nothing more than to be able to go back in time, back to the Samhain Eve, before he had broken both their hearts, to tell her about everything he had learned, about the difference between crows and ravens. A trick of his tired mind, the shadowy phantom of Erin vanished again. Was this a sign that he was going to die?

The General's sudden move woke Garrett from his reverie as his opponent placed another bolt in his crossbow. It was a different kind of projectile this time. He aimed and pulled the trigger.

Garrett's Primal eye flashed.

He rolled to the side and instinctively shielded his face with his arm. A wave of heat thundered over him as the explosive projectile hit the wall of the hall, and a heartbeat later an earsplitting noise and a rain of marble dust filled the air. Just after that three more explosive bolts shot past him in rapid succession and this time, they hit the window front.

The combined power of the detonations tore a gaping hole into the wall, creating a storm of broken glass and marble crumbs, and the frosty wind from outside came rushing in, howling and hurling dust around. The whole building seemed to shake. Garrett's ears rang and his vision was blurry, but he still could see some of the men lying knocked out on the ground between the burning curtains as parts of the gallery had collapsed. He heard the remaining guards shouting to each other and the coughing of the General as the air in the hall turned into a chaos of dust, smoke and flames. Apparently, this was nothing the General had intended to do.

Garrett took the chance.

Quick as a striking snake, he seized the General, grabbed his crossbow-arm and forcefully brought it down over his knee, twisting his elbow around. When he heard a satisfying crack coming from the joint and the painful howl of the General, he let go of him, his now useless arm dangling from his shoulder. Garrett tried to bring the larger, heavier man down by twisting his other arm towards him and locking one leg between the feet of the General, but he reacted much faster than the Thief had anticipated. Roaring with pain and anger, the General used his rage-fuelled strength to squirm out of Garrett's firm grip and punched him in the stomach with an iron gauntlet. Garrett doubled over, gasping for breath, and immediately let himself drop as the General's sword swished over his head. The General easily outdid Garrett when it came to sheer muscle mass and raw strength, forcing the much shorter and slimmer Thief to use his lissome, athletic body to his advantage. Garrett slinked behind the General's broad back, evading his opponent's frantic blows. Flailing his sword madly with frenzy and anger, the General drove them both closer to the hole the explosion had ripped into the wall. Garrett dodged another blow, landed a well-placed punch on the General's temple and rammed one of his own crossbow bolts into the gap between his shoulder pads and neck. He used enough strength to pierce the man's leather collar, causing a red stain to slowly soak his armor. The General roared with pain once more and tried to ram the sword into Garrett's chest, but the Thief danced aside, allowing his opponent to pierce the open air, throwing himself out of balance. Garrett drew one of his arrows and lifted his arm to thrust the arrowhead into the back of the General's neck.

Before he could land this last fatal blow, a sharp pain shot through Garrett's left arm, taking his breath away. He groaned, dropped the arrow and pressed a hand on the wound, feeling a gush of his warm blood rinse over his fingers. A stray crossbow bolt from above had found its target and left a deep, bleeding gash in Garrett's arm.

"Hah, gotcha!", the General roared triumphantly as if it had been his shot. He attempted to seize Garrett, trying to wrestle his slender opponent to the ground. Garrett, biting back his pain, nimbly evaded the General's grip, pushing him further to the edge of the hall, towards the opening the explosions had left. The General's more and more frenzied moves almost came to Garrett's aide in his attempt to drive his opponent towards the edge, despite the raging pain in his arm, his legs, his mind, but then they both slipped on the blood puddle under their feet.

The General staggered over the edge, holding firmly onto Garrett with rage-fuelled power. Suddenly, there was cold wind in his face, the smell of the river, the view of the City far below as it bathed in the first rays of the dawn's light, the horizon tilted in an impossible angle. Garrett tried to swing himself around to change their positions, but the General's uncontrolled flailing, the slippery bits of debris in the blood on the floor and sheer misfortune caused them to stagger to the edge, and after a terrible moment of pain and confusion and hands desperately grappling for support, Garrett was hanging from the edge of the hole in the tower's wall, his hands clinging to the jagged marble. He gritted his teeth as he felt the cracked stone biting into his fingers, blood running down his wrists. His feet were automatically looking for a support underneath, but there was none.

Mustering all what was left of his strength and trying to ignore the burning pain in his arm, Garrett tried to pull himself back up, but then he glimpsed two heavy boots above him.

The Thief Taker General, bleeding, gasping for breath, covered in dust and clutching his broken arm, loomed over him, staring down at the Thief with madness burning in his eyes, his greasy hair a complete mess, blood running down from the corner of his wide grin.

"There, there, Garrett… Looks like the famous Master Thief finally got put in his place, huh?", he rasped snidely. "And in the end, I win!"

Garrett didn't reply. The pain in his hands and arms from clutching to the edge was getting unbearable and his whole body burned with exhaustion. Deep under him, the muddy river and the bridge looked like they were miles away, and the cold wind tugged at his cloak. The Thief Taker General continued.

"This is what awaits every wretched thief in the City, you hear me? This is for the leg you cost me, and for all those years of pestering me! Your death will be a prime example for every criminal in the City, a warning for anyone daring to challenge me!" The General broke into laughter, spreading his healthy arm.

"You know, I'd love to see you swinging from a noose, but that would mean that I had to help you up to put you into chains. And if I learned something over the years, it's that when you finally get hold of a rat, you kill it immediately, or it might find some way to worm its way out of your grip. And this is what you do with rats, Garrett… You drown them."

Garrett, breathing heavily and desperately biting back the pain that threatened to overwhelm him, felt a heavy boot tramping on his left hand. He had to bite his tongue until he tasted blood to not cry out loudly.

The General smirked, his eyes glittering with hatred and enjoyment alike. "Any last words, Master Thief?"

Garrett just pressed his lips together and glared up darkly. He was not going to do him the favor of begging for his life.

 _So this is it? I'm going to die by falling from a tower? How disappointing._

 _This time it's me dangling above an abyss._

He almost smiled with the heartbreaking irony.

Erin's face showed up in his mind, replacing the view of the triumphant General. A rush of memories overflowed Garrett's tired head, memories of her fall, of her return. Memories of his life as Thief in the City, the City that had become as much a part of him as he was a part of it, its essence deeply rooted in his spirit and bones, a boon and bane at the same time before and after the crisis as Garrett had done his utmost to save it despite he didn't even know if it was worth saving, both of them condemned to an eternal interdependence. The City had shown him the cruelty of the world he had been tossed into and taught him how to survive in it by perfecting the art of stealing, turning him into the ghost that he was, leaving him no choice but to save it from destruction in order to remain alone, needing something to be alone from. He remembered painfully that a raven could choose to be alone together with another one… Garrett thought of the way Erin's eyes shone when they went out on a heist together, filling him with a jolt of elation, the utter pride he felt for her when he told her she had done well after a successful move, the boundless devotion when he entered her while she was pressing her body against his, while he was drowning in her eyes.

Garrett remembered the sorrow on Erin's face before she turned away from him after he had failed to respond to her.

 _I love you, Garrett._

As much as he wished to go back to Basso to tell him he was right, to return to his clocktower to admire his collection, to fletch arrows and afterwards happily raid some noble's mansion, in the end he wished nothing more than to be able to answer.

Closing his eyes, he surrendered to the pain.

Garrett was slipping.


	12. Chapter 12 - Roosting

**Chapter 12 – Roosting**

The General enhanced the pressure on Garrett's hand, stomping down with his heavy boot slowly. He was clearly enjoying this, for he still laughed madly. Garrett barely heard it, his mind filled with a maelstrom of regret, sorrow and loss, almost ready to surrender to the hollow ache in his chest. He just wanted to forget, to escape the suffering, he couldn't take it anymore and he had no strength left in him to fight back. He felt the rough marble grind against his palms as his bleeding hands slowly slipped. What little was left of his strength had drained from him, and Garrett closed his eyes. _Rest. Finally._

Suddenly, the pain of the immense weight on his hand stopped.

Garrett looked up and blinked the sweat and dust from his eyes.

The Thief Taker General's laughter had come to an abrupt halt, and his facial expression was slowly changing. The victorious, frenzied smirk faded away. His eyes focused on something far in the distance, the mad spark inside them snuffed out like a candle.

A sudden gush of blood erupted from the General's mouth, and he swayed.

Then he toppled over, head first, and Garrett glimpsed a slim dagger embedded deeply in the back of the General's neck as his worst enemy plummeted down from the Tower of the Bridge, getting smaller and smaller and disappearing into the river far down below.

Utterly confused, Garrett clung to the edge, now all his senses wide awake. The jolt of adrenaline from the shock made his pain more prominent than ever, chasing away the numbness that had filled him before.

A hand shot down from above and firmly grabbed his wrist.

The hand belonged to Erin.

"Don't let go!", she shouted down at him, her voice barely audible in the cold wind. At first Garrett couldn't believe his eyes. This was a dream, a torturously sweet dream, a sadistic trick of his pained mind as he was balancing on the border between life and death, it couldn't be true. He was still slipping from her grip, as he was much too heavy for her to lift him up. Then, a rope dangled down beside him.

"Grab the rope!", Erin ordered. Finally coming to his senses, Garrett obeyed. He snatched the rope with his good arm, wrapping it around his wrist reflexively, and let go of the edge. There was a moment of dangerous uncertainty in which he swung above the abyss, secured only by Erin's grip and the rope, with the wind tugging wildly at his cloak, but with her support they managed to haul his stricken body over the edge back into safety.

Garrett collapsed on the bloodstained marble floor, every single pained muscle screaming for rest. Trying to catch his breath, he looked up briefly and saw that the fire from the General's misplaced explosions had spread. The black curtains were a mess of smoldering rags and the main doors of the hall were open, thick black smoke erupting from it. Deep down in the lower levels of the tower, he could hear voices shouting to each other and the muffled thump of an explosion.

"Quick, we need to leave! Stand up!"

Garrett felt Erin's arms as they wrapped around his waist and helped him stand upright, his good arm cast over her shoulders.

"What about the guards?", Garrett managed to rasp, his voice hoarse and sore. Erin's gaze met his, for the first time. He was not able to name all the emotions that he could see in her eyes, but grim determination was the most prominent one. Joy of reunion was none of them.

"Don't ask. We'll talk later. Tell me it wasn't you who lit the damn lift on fire?"

"My bad. Had to improvise."

Erin sighed and rolled her eyes. "There were oil tanks and lubricants in the basement. The inside of the tower is one big furnace and the fire should have reached every floor by now. There were almost no guards here, and so most of them fled when the fire spread. We need to leave right now."

She pulled her claw from the pillar she had secured it in and rolled up the rope again, then she took him by the arm and led him over to the main entrance. There, she pulled her scarf over her mouth and nose to shield herself from the thick smoke, and Garrett did the same with his mask. His legs were burning from the exhaustion and his injured arm still throbbed with pain, the leather clinging to his skin sticky with blood. He was leaving a trace of red trickles behind. Still, he forced himself to pick up the pace. Erin supported him as good as she could, even though she was even smaller and slimmer built than he was. Together they passed the broad gates and sneaked down the flight of stairs to the next floor, turning left and heading for the stairs. There was no way they could use the lift shaft as an escape route, Garrett saw, as it was filled to the brim with smoke and flames, occasional sparks lighting up the hazy staircase. The pungent stench of burning carpet and smoldering mechanisms was intoxicating and made his eyes water. He limped down the stairs as fast as his pain allowed him. They passed some guards that didn't look like they had been knocked out by the fire. Erin apparently had taken care of them, but Garrett was not in the mood to check whether they were dead or not.

The next floor was an inferno of burning curtains and wall panels. Erin indicated him to wait, turning her head as she tried to locate the position of the guards they could hear through the hissing and roaring of the fire. Garrett tried to use his Primal eye, too exhausted to make out definite shapes, but he made it to pinpoint the guards' whereabouts by vaguely gesturing his right hand towards the next room. Erin understood him and they carefully skirted the men trying to control the fire, moving down into the next level.

"This is where I came in", Garrett remarked and gestured to the window he had slipped through.

Erin raised one eyebrow. "So you flew up here, then?"

"I walked along the suspension cable."

Erin shot him a glance that mixed deep admiration with the unspoken question whether he had been completely out of his mind. Garrett almost smiled inwardly when he thought of how close to the truth that was. Then she looked him up and down before apparently coming to the conclusion that neither of them was in the state for such an escapade. They had to take the long way down the tower and across the bridge, it seemed.

Luckily, the present guards were either lying around or attempting to extinguish the raging fires, but still the long walk down the stairs and the constant exposure to the smoke and fire combined with his exhaustion and injuries pushed Garrett to his limits. The loss of blood became more and more noticeable, his vision faltered every now and then and he had trouble standing upright. When they finally reached the ground floor of the tower, Erin paused at the door and peeked through the keyhole.

"There's a brigade of firefighters coming along with some watchmen, but they have trouble reaching the tower due to the ongoing repairs. If we hurry and take care, we can skirt them", she said. Then she looked up and gazed at Garrett, her eyes filled with something he couldn't name, making his chest feel painfully tight.

"Don't you dare to die on the way, stupid taffer, you hear me?"

Garrett managed a low chuckle that immediately turned into a coughing fit, but still he nodded.

Erin opened the door and they stepped into the dawn's light.

The fragments of the Bridge of Auldale that were still intact were connected with makeshift walkways and footbridges, cluttered with crates and large containers for building material. They ducked down and moved quickly between piles of rocks and iron girders, always keeping an eye on the shouting flock of people that was heading for the tower. Garrett was so close to just collapsing right where he was standing that he mainly relied on Erin's lead, following her when she signaled him to and waiting hidden behind a cover until she moved on. The sun was moving up and it was getting harder for them to hide by the second, but still the two Thieves made it to cross the bridge unseen and vanished into a shadowy alley.

The time it took them to reach the clocktower blurred past in one painful mess for Garrett. He vaguely remembered forcing himself to set one foot in front of the other behind Erin who mostly stayed on the ground level as he was in no condition to climb. His vision was hazy, his head droned terribly and more than once he swayed to the side and slammed into a wall, barely noticing that Erin supported his weight and helped him move forward. He must have tumbled more than once, for he remembered suddenly seeing the cobblestones approach him at an alarming speed, but apparently Erin caught him every time before he fell, making him move on. After what felt like forever, and he had no idea how, they reached the hidden entrance of the clocktower and slowly clambered up the stairs until they could pass the window that led to his hideout under the clockwork.

Erin gently but firmly led Garrett over to his bed where he slumped down, gasping for breath and completely spent. While he desperately tried to collect himself, she produced a bowl of water and clean bandages from his supplies. Erin removed his cloak, gauntlets and harness and rolled up the hem of his sleeve, then she started to clean the deep gash in his arm. Garrett winced when she carefully applied a healing salve and wrapped a bandage around it. The bleeding had stopped, he noticed vaguely. Erin was quickly checking his other wounds with almost uncaring routine, ignoring his still apathetic condition. She pushed down his hood and mask and felt for injuries on his scalp, applying salve or dressing where it was needed, while Garrett slowly found his way back into reality.

He had been about to die.

Erin had returned to him out of nowhere once more, and this time _she_ had saved _him_ from falling.

 _I thought she was gone forever. I thought she had finally made the decision that it would be better if we went separate ways…_

For the last weeks, in almost every waking and sleeping moment, Garrett had thought about Erin, his failure to see that all she wanted was for him to notice her attempts at helping him to take a look inside his own heart, his deep sorrow and his regret that he had missed his chance to do so. Now that Erin was back, Garrett realized slowly that despite his desperate wish to talk to her again, despite having hoped with all his heart for another chance, he was scared. He was scared that he would not be able to respond to her once more. Overwhelming fear clasped his chest when he imagined her leaving him again, once and for all.

Garrett wasn't sure he would survive it another time.

Erin interrupted his thoughts. "You should see someone who can sew up the wound in your arm. It's pretty deep", she advised. Her tone was neutral, seemingly uncaring, but Garrett could sense a swirling mass of buried emotions in her tone. She avoided looking at him.

"I'll see Ector when I feel better", he came back quietly. The inventor had already patched his wounds up quite some times when Garrett was not able to treat them on his own. Ector could be as nimble with a needle as with a screwdriver as long as the wound didn't look too bloody.

Apparently satisfied with her provisory treatment, Erin turned away from Garrett and leaned against the wooden railing across from his bed, arms crossed in front of her chest. She gazed up into the softly clattering clockwork as if there was something only she could see.

They remained quiet for a long while, until Garrett couldn't take the silence any longer.

"Why have you returned to me?", he asked quietly. He wasn't sure whether she even knew it herself.

Erin sighed deeply, then she returned his gaze, anger and deep sorrow mixing in her eyes equally. It took her a moment before she finally spoke, and when she did, her voice quivered slightly.

"I've never wished anything more than to be noticed by you, Garrett. Before the accident, I've done it all the wrong way, but after you accepted me back and gave me another chance to team up with you, I thought that over time, you would notice me as long as I played by your rules. And in a way you did. You said I was doing well. Did I?"

"You did."

"Were you proud of me?"

"Always", he whispered, and it was the plain truth.

"See, you told me so, and you can't even imagine how happy I was about that. About our new closeness. Happier than I've ever been my entire life", Erin said quietly before she took another shuddering breath and continued. "But I also tried my best to pay heed to what you told me about your attitudes towards relationships. I forced myself to bury the feelings I always had for you as deeply inside me as I could. Over time, though, when we got closer and closer to each other, I felt that it was just _wrong_. I could sense things in you that you deliberately suppressed. I felt that you were hurting _yourself_ by refusing to see your own feelings, and I wanted nothing more than to help you. You didn't notice. And then, on Samhain Eve…"

She broke off, and Garrett winced. He knew exactly what she meant, the evening when Erin finally had made the attempt to confront him with the cracks in the cold mantle around his heart, when he had failed to respond to her. Erin's eyes glistened when she continued. He had never seen her this close to crying. A stinging pain blossomed in his chest.

"I wanted to forget you, Garrett. I was so angry, so disappointed to be pushed away again after we almost became... you know, you and me. I thought that the best thing for us was to go separate paths. If you don't want me around in that way, I would not weigh you down with my stupid attachment, wasting my time helping somebody who refuses any help." Her last words were uttered with such bitterness that Garrett clenched his fists, his lips pressed to a thin line. Erin went on.

"I left, telling myself that it was once and for all. But I couldn't make myself leave the City, so I stayed around for a while, and the longer I waited the more torn apart I felt until I couldn't take it anymore. I went to your clocktower and when you were not there, I asked Basso about you. He told me about the crown in the Tower of Auldale. Shit, Garrett, Basso was so worried about you… And I…"

At this point, Erin stared up into the cogs and gearwheels of the clockwork again, taking a deep, shuddering breath. Her eyes looked alarmingly wet, and when she spoke, she sounded like she was in agony.

"Garrett… I wanted to forget you, but I just couldn't get you out of my head. I just couldn't… When I close my eyes, I see your face. When I go to sleep, I hear your voice. When I'm out on heists, I feel your shadow beside me. I don't want this anymore! It's _hurting_ me, Garrett!"

With that, she uncrossed her arms and stared him down, eyes flashing with anguish. " _What have you done to me!?_ "

Mustering all that was left of his strength, Garrett stood up from the bed, ignoring the pain. It didn't matter. Right now, all his thoughts were circling around this one thing he had to do, this last chance Erin had given him by returning to him.

 _If I screw this up it's all over, and I'll be damned if I can take this agony one more time._

All the sorrow, guilt and feelings of loss from the last weeks, of the last year combined were cleared from his tired mind, and despite the exhaustion he knew exactly there was only one thing he could do.

Garrett slowly walked up to Erin, his gaze locked firmly on hers, reaching into the small pocket in his bloodstained shirt. He pulled out the ring he had made from the broken clasp and turquoise of her necklace.

Garrett went down on one knee in front of Erin and held up the ring.

"I love you too, Erin", he said quietly.

Erin stared down at him, utterly stunned. She slowly shook her head, an incredulous expression on her face as if she refused to believe her eyes. Garrett waited, hoping, for what felt like an eternity. Finally, Erin dropped down to her knees as well, throwing herself into his arms.

Then she broke into tears.

Garrett quickly caught Erin and wrapped her in a tight embrace, stroking her back as quiet sobs made her entire body shake. He felt her warm tears run down his neck, soaking his shoulder, and her shivering hands firmly clutching the cloth of his shirt. He might have taken her outburst as a bad sign, but deep inside he knew that it was nothing bad. He pressed the side of his head against hers and held her close as she allowed all the emotions she had dammed up inside her for so long to drain from her heart and mind.

"Sorry for the late answer", he added softly. Erin's crying just got a little bit louder and her fists tightened their grip.

"Stupid, taffin' bastard…", she muttered. Garrett couldn't help his mouth to curl into a small smile.

"I know."

After all, he was the first thing that made her cry. Garrett was determined to keep it the only time, determined to keep them both from getting hurt from now on. He closed his eyes, just holding her, inhaling the scent of her hair and enjoying it with all his heart.

"Never leave me again, Erin", he breathed pleadingly. He felt her nod.

"If you will keep me by your side…", she managed to respond between two quiet sobs.

"I will. I promise."

They hugged each other even closer.

After a long while, her body stopped trembling, and the sobs subsided until only soft sniveling was left. Garrett kissed her neck and rubbed her back, feeling her take a few deep breaths to calm herself. Eventually, she withdrew from his embrace enough to use one arm to wipe her nose and cheeks. Then she pushed away a little further until she could look at him. Garrett wiped a stray tear from her face with his thumb, staring back at her. There were uncertainty and disbelief in her eyes, warring with incredulous happiness.

Erin's gaze wandered down to the ring Garrett still had in one hand. He noticed it and held the ring up again between them so she could see it, feeling a little awkward about it. Showing her the ring had been a _very_ impulsive idea, and now that he thought about it he was not quite sure if he was able to explain what he had tried to express with it. Erin seemed to share that feeling, but she smiled softly.

"Is this ring supposed to mean what I think it means?", she asked finally.

Garrett hesitated.

"Yes… and no", he answered. He knew that getting down on one knee and offering a ring was commonly translated with a wedding proposal and little else, but he was certainly _not_ thinking of a marriage, at least not a conventional one. He still had something akin to a marriage in mind, but not entirely. Trying to compose himself, he took some time to find the right words.

"While you were gone, I had a lot of time to think", he said eventually. "I was so torn apart, even worse than when you were taken into slavery back then."

"Basso told me as much", Erin interrupted quietly. Garrett snorted, a sour smile playing around his lips.

"You have no idea." He decided to spare her the fact that he had been close to losing his will to live before she saved him. He continued. "After I couldn't stand it any longer, I visited the Queen of Beggars. She always seems to see what's going on in peoples' heads, even if they are too stubborn and aloof to see it themselves."

Erin smirked a little at his self-mocking comment. "And? What did she tell you?"

Garrett hesitated. It was still a bit confusing to him and hard to summarize. Finally, he asked:

"Do you know the difference between crows and ravens?"

Erin shook her head. Garrett explained as good as he was able to.

As soon as he was done, she remained silent for a while, apparently deeply in thought. When she spoke up again, something deep in her tear-stained eyes shone like a fire far in the distance.

"So… you mean… You don't want a partnership as such, but something like we had earlier, plus the promise to stay together no matter what?"

Garrett nodded slowly. "Kind of. I would like to have you around, and go on heists with you, and be there if you need me. I want to make sure you are safe, and happy. I want to be alone, but I want to be alone together with you. Like a pair of ravens."

Erin tilted her head. "So… Why do you think you need an engagement ring if essentially, you don't want anything to change?"

"To show you that this time, I mean it."

A lopsided, touched smile danced across her features. She rolled her eyes and leaned in to kiss him. Garrett returned her kiss and almost moaned with the wonderful feeling of her soft, warm lips against his, sending a powerful shiver down his spine and heating up his chest like it was filled with embers. He opened up his mouth a bit, inviting her to deepen the kiss, and she complied after a moment's hesitation, allowing him to curl his tongue against hers, causing his hands to tighten their grip on her waist. He had missed this desperately.

She withdrew from him, eyeing the ring once more. Garrett raised his eyebrows and moved the ring a little, a questioning look on his face. Erin squinted at him before she seemed to come to a decision. She offered him her left hand and he carefully put it on her finger.

"Does it fit? I was not able to adjust it to your size when I made it."

"It's perfect." She turned her hand this way and that, her lips curling into a wide smile. Despite her eyes still looking somewhat wet, they glittered with incredulous joy, but there was also a hint of uncertainty to be seen. He could well imagine why. "So… What exactly did you have in mind?", she asked.

"I was definitely _not_ thinking of a marriage, except you would like to use wanted posters as invitations and spend our honeymoon in prison. I was thinking of something better suited for people like us. I just want to make a promise to you."

"Sounds nice", she came back quietly.

"Maybe… We could go see the Queen of Beggars for this. If there's someone who is not only willing to accept our presence but also able to understand what we are going for, it's her."

Erin nodded, lost in thought. Garrett barely registered it as he suddenly swayed a little to the side, feeling his pain and tiredness returning to him, and Erin hurried to support him. He vaguely felt how she helped him up and gently led him back to the bed. Garrett drowsily complied and had trouble keeping his eyes open when she covered him in a blanket. His physical exhaustion combined with the emotional strain was starting to really take its toll on him.

"Let's take care of that later, silly taffer", Erin said softly, her voice sounding muffled to him. "I'm going to come back soon."

Her last words made him start a little. "Don't leave me…", he muttered. Erin bent over him and pressed a kiss on his forehead, her breath warm on his skin.

"I'm just going to fetch some medicine for you from my supplies. Sleep now, Garrett. You need to rest. And I need to think about all this."

"Erin… Don't leave me", he breathed drowsily, feeling a leaden tiredness take over.

He didn't hear whether she responded or not.

* * *

Erin cast a thoughtful glance over to the bed the Master Thief was fast asleep in. Everything looked just like the countless times she had spent the day in his clocktower as if nothing had happened the last weeks, from his sparse kitchen equipment, his cluttered workshop, his supply chests to his carefully arranged collection. The things that broke the illusion of normality were the drying bloodstains on the floor and sheets.

And the ring on her finger.

Pushing back her racing thoughts for the moment, she carefully undressed Garrett a bit further, removing the harder parts of his attire and his boots, making sure he was comfortable. After she had covered him in another blanket, Erin skipped through the window and hugged the wall of the tower, slowly making her descent, careful not to attract any unwanted attention now that she was moving in broad daylight. Even though she could imagine the largest part of the City Watch being over at Auldale to look after the burning tower, she decided to move as discretely as possible to reach her temporary hideout.

Erin had emptied her mill after Samhain Eve, planning never to return, heartbroken as she was, but could not make herself leave the City, so she had stored her things in the attic of an abandoned storehouse in the South Quarter. She had busied herself with meaningless little heists in the area, desperately trying to keep her thoughts from running loose, before she finally hadn't been able to take the pain any longer and went looking for Garrett. She was not even sure why she had done that, what she had expected to gain from meeting him again, but now that she thought about it, Erin knew there had been no other way than returning to him once more.

When she arrived at the abandoned storehouse, using her claw to climb up in the wooden rafters of the dusty attic, she started to rummage around in her medicine chest. Garrett had suffered numerous little wounds that were not bad as such, but still could get dangerous if they got infected, so she gathered some herbs and salves to treat them.

While Erin skimmed through her supplies, she thought about Garrett's proposal again.

 _Isn't this what I've always wanted?_

His love confession had made Erin incredibly happy, but it had also shocked her. It had come so sudden and unexpected after she had almost decided to give him up for good. Only her deeply rooted pain about his loss had made her come back to the clocktower and to Basso, and when Basso had told her that he believed the whole crown-thing to be a suicide mission set up by the General, she had seen no other way than to come to Garrett's help. Just thinking about him getting hurt made Erin's heart burst with pain and worry, and she had come just in the right moment to save him.

 _Just like back then, when I was caught in the Primal, and Garrett came to save me…_

She recalled what Garrett had told her, that he was proud of her, his wish to make a promise to her to never leave her again. His wish to prove her that he actually loved her.

Part of Erin wondered if she could trust him.

 _What if he makes up his mind and pushes me away again?_

It would not be the first time. Erin was not sure she could take the pain once more.

Still, as sore and heartbroken as she might feel, deep inside she hoped desperately that he was being serious. She still loved Garrett with all her heart, even if he had hurt her so many times. It was not his aloof nature or his detachment, she was perfectly fine with that since she shared his need for some time alone. Erin also needed her space sometimes, her independence, free to do whatever she wanted without anyone else around, living and stealing by her own rules. They had this in common, she knew that. What Erin wanted was the possibility to be together with Garrett and having the assurance that he would always welcome her by his side, whether they were out on missions together or alone. She wanted to know what he felt for her, she wanted security. She wanted, no, she _needed_ reassurance of his love for her, to prevent herself and him from getting torn apart again. How could she know? Garrett was the one person she had always wanted to trust, but there had been so many times in which he had disappointed her.

 _But so have I, and there he is, all the mistakes I made forgiven, and asks me for my hand…_

Erin sighed, stashed another jar of herbs in a bag and looked at the ring Garrett had given her. She pulled it from her finger and turned it in the dusty sunlight that shone through the holes in the roof. Apparently he had made it himself, and she had to admit that even if the Master Thief was no silversmith, it was amazingly beautiful. The oval turquoise looked just like the ones in her beloved necklace, she noticed, and briefly wondered if he had used parts of the necklace to make the ring.

Suddenly, something struck her eye.

There were letters on the inside of the ring, finely engraved and almost invisible. Erin blinked and held the ring closer to the sunlight to read the engraving, and when she had done so she felt her eyes well up with tears again.

 _My Kestrel._

Her hands trembled.

"Oh Garrett, you silly, taffin' bastard…", she muttered, pressing a hand over her mouth to keep herself from crying.

 _He means it. He must. He loves me…_

Garrett had not stolen this ring. He had not created it simply to exercise himself. No, he had made it specifically for her, dedicated to her alone, quite a while ago, and had kept it with him as if he had always hoped for her to return so he could make his proposal when they saw each other again.

The sheer gravity of the gesture took Erin's breath away.

She felt just as moved as in the moment when he went down on one knee in front of her and she had to breathe in deeply to calm herself. She pressed the ring to her chest and then put it back on her finger.

She made a decision.

Erin gathered her things and went on her way back to the clocktower.

* * *

Something gently shook his shoulder, and Garrett woke up.

"You've slept all day", Erin's voice stated. She sounded a little mocking and compassionate at the same time.

Drowsily, Garrett lifted his head and registered the amber-colored sunbeams of the dusk floating through the windows and clockface of his tower, making the dust dance and glow. When he saw Erin sitting on the edge of the bed next to him, his heart beat faster.

 _She's here, with me. She's back…_

Garrett smiled widely.

"Evening", he murmured, blinking the sleep from his eyes. He tried to sit up, but when he did so every single muscle in his body protested angrily. He still was sore and worn out, but he felt a _lot_ better and more refreshed than the other day. Wincing, Garrett gritted his teeth and managed to at least push himself a bit more upright against his pillow. While doing so, he noticed that his hands were wrapped in bandages, covered in ominous green stains. When he moved his fingers he felt thick, mushy pulp under the cloth.

Erin noticed his knitted brow. "Those are poultices made with healing herbs. Your hands got pretty battered during your fight and I wanted to prevent the cuts and scratches from becoming infected", she explained.

Garrett shot her an appreciative glance. "You have a way with herbs."

"I think we can remove them now", Erin decided and reached for his hands. While she carefully undid the bandages, Garrett couldn't help but notice a certain tension radiating from her, as if she was uneasy and tried not to show him. He could well imagine why. The last weeks had not only been a terrible strain for him, but also for her. He felt that there still was a lot they had to sort out between them, especially about the proposal he had made and that had probably taken her by surprise. Garrett also thought about the fight in the tower she had reminded him of, of their escape. He wanted to know what had happened to the guards.

"The guards in the tower…", he started carefully.

Erin threw him a cautious glance, then she returned her attention to his hands.

"If you are wondering what I did about them... I simply put most of them to sleep with the blackjack, but one ran away to alarm his colleagues and got hit by an exploding oiltank. Not sure if he made it. Another turned around before I could knock him out and attacked me, and I had to defend myself." Erin put the poultices aside and used a clean rag to rub the remaining herbs from Garrett's hands, who listened intently. "I had to choose. It was you or them. Easy choice for me."

Now, she looked up, the defiant flare in her eyes mixed with guilt. "I'm very sorry for the guards. But I did what I had to do."

Garrett nodded, flexing his fingers. They still felt a little stiff from the scab that covered his cuts, but they didn't hurt as badly as they had done before.

"You did what you thought was right, and you avoided as much unnecessary bloodshed as possible. I'm proud of you. I would have done the same", Garrett said quietly. Then his gaze met hers.

"I owe you my life. Thank you, Erin."

Erin pressed her lips together. She just leaned over and wrapped him in her arms, holding him close. He felt her rub her face against his neck when he returned the embrace.

"I told you I would pick up your slack, didn't I?", she muttered.

Garrett smiled softly, closing his eyes and enjoying the feeling of her warm body pressed against his. Yes, she had told him so, half an eternity ago. Back then he had been annoyed by her teasing tone, but now it had gotten an entirely different meaning.

Something else came back to his mind.

"Erin, have you… Have you made your decision?"

She pulled away from his embrace, and he felt that she tensed even more. Her gaze wandered down to the ring she still wore on her left hand. When he had proposed to her last morning, she had taken the ring, but she hadn't told him whether she accepted his proposal or not.

Erin rose from the bed and stood in front of Garrett, then she took off the ring and handed it back to him.

Panic rose inside Garrett, and he stared at her with unbelieving bewilderment. When Erin noticed his shocked expression, she hurried to calm him, placing her hands on his.

"No, no, no, I was not going to decline! I just want to… Ask me again, will you?"

Garrett briefly closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His heart turned into an ice-cold lump that had sunken to his feet for a moment, proving to him once more that if he should lose her again, it would completely run him ragged. He shot her a chiding glance, but then he slowly rose from the bed as well.

Once more, Garrett went down to one knee in front of her and held up the ring.

"Erin, would you like to be my raven?", he asked, and he meant it with all his heart.

Erin closed her eyes for a while, inhaling deeply. When she looked down at him again, Garrett saw from the way her eyes burned with the blue fire he knew so well that her inner unrest had faded away, and was replaced by incredulous joy. Her lips stretched into a wide smile.

"I do. If you will be mine."

"I will", he whispered hoarsely. Erin offered him her left hand and once again, he put the ring on her finger. She giggled and hauled him up to pull him into her arms, catching his mouth with hers.

While they were kissing passionately under the softly clattering clockwork, Garrett felt as if a dam had broken. The disappointment, the guilt, the hollow ache that had accompanied the feelings of loss, the sorrow that had been weighing him down for so long were slowly fading away from him, like melting ice on a river in spring.

He was still surprised about how _right_ it felt. Deciding to allow somebody inside the tight barrier he had constructed around his enclosed world was nothing he would have expected himself to be willing to do at any point. But he was. He found that only now, by allowing Erin to form a definitive connection between them instead of the loose contact they had in all the years before, he would be able to come to peace with his feelings. Balance his mind. Garrett knew it would take him some time to adapt to the somewhat strange situation, but he was willing to do so. He was a raven, flying his lonely circles over the City, and she would be the only exception, the one he chose to fly with him.

"I love you, Erin", he murmured against her lips, listening to his own voice as he spoke the words. They felt unfamiliar as he said them, but they felt true.

"I love you too", Erin came back quietly. She snorted softly and shook her head. "Stupid taffer." Then she kissed him again.

After a long while, she withdrew from him to look at her hand, a touched little smirk on her face.

"I better make another ring for me, right?", Garrett asked.

"Please, do so. But first you should go visit Ector to take care of your arm. Need a strong shoulder to lean against while you're going?", Erin asked teasingly.

Garrett snorted. "I think I can do this without almost falling from a tower. I'll be back soon." Picking up his boots and harness, Garrett dressed, leaving out the gauntlets and elbow pads since Ector would need easy access to his limbs. He felt a little incomplete without his usual gear, but it was only for a short while.

The sun was just slipping behind the horizon when Garrett left the clocktower, taking the path down to Ector's emporium. While he was carefully climbing down from the towering height of his hideout, he could see a pillar of smoke erupting from the direction Auldale was in, illuminated in a deep red from the last rays of the sun. He felt a pang of sympathy for the staff of the tower that had been injured during the accident. He had definitely not planned to set the whole tower on fire, but there had been no way for him to know the tower was stuffed with oiltanks, and the General's misplaced explosions had significantly added to that.

The Thief Taker General was dead.

Garrett was not sure how to feel about this. It left him almost indifferent, he found, even though the General had been his most fervent pursuer for years. Garrett's already bad reputation would probably suffer even more should he be accused of murder in addition to thievery. All signs pointed to him being the one who killed the General, but on the other hand he had never really cared about the public opinion on him, so why start now. Another hunter would replace the Thief Taker, striving to bring the infamous Master Thief down, but he would not squeeze the blacktax out of every criminal in the City including Basso, and also he would not hold a personal grudge against Garrett. At least, not at first.

 _I just have to make sure I don't hit his leg with my claw._

A small part of him was very relieved that he was gone. Over time, Thadeus Harlan had actually been quite annoying at more than one occasion.

Garrett arrived at Ector's place, got in and luckily found the inventor in his workshop. Ector never asked questions, his mind mostly circling around his beloved automatons and little else, and quickly set to stitch Garrett's wound. The Thief appreciated his discretion, even though his constant talking about technical issues of the automaton tended to get on his nerves after a while. Nonetheless, Garrett was more than satisfied with the neat stitching on his arm. He thanked Ector and left, shortly after reaching his clocktower again.

Erin had made a fire in a basket and busied herself with the preparation of food, stirring in a steaming kettle. It smelled wonderful and Garrett's rumbling stomach reminded him how irregularly he had eaten during the last weeks. Shooting her a sidelong smile that she returned, he undressed, placed his clothing on his bed and went over to where his wash bowl was. He filled it with rainwater from a barrel and dipped a clean rag inside, using it to get his skin wet before he went in search of the chunk of soap. Garrett had not taken much care of his body lately, his mind being elsewhere, and he had to prevent his numerous little cuts and bruises from getting dirty. Also, he wanted to smell nice, now that Erin was with him.

As soon as he was satisfied with his state of cleanliness and his washed hair, he brushed the long strands of hair on his crown back and tied them up with a leather strap like he was used to. Then he put on his smallclothes, his boots and shirt and went over to the fire basket.

"Smells nice", Garrett commented. Erin handed him a bowl of what looked like a savory stew of carrots, chicken, leek and bacon, together with a slice of buttered bread. They sat down under the clockwork while the moon rose outside and contently ate what passed as a very late dinner, as they had done so many times before. This time, though, it felt special to Garrett.

"How's your arm?", Erin wanted to know, taking a sip of cider from her cup.

"Much better. As absentminded Ector often seems, he really has a knack for precision work", Garrett came back after swallowing. The stew she had made was a treat, and he refilled his bowl for the third time. "Gonna work on my ring when I'm done eating. Have anything in mind for the engraving?"

Erin shot him a touched little smile. "Well… Since you used my nickname on my ring, it would be fitting to use your nickname on your ring, don't you think?"

"Well, then. _Big silly taffer_ , it shall be."

Erin burst into laughter, and Garrett's mouth curled into a lopsided smirk. Hearing her laugh felt just as satisfying as a full belly. He emptied his bowl, picked up his cup of cider and padded up the stairs to his workshop. Erin, still giggling, followed him.

"Yeah, that might be what I call you most often. But, you know, _My Kestrel_ and _My Widowbird_ kind of has a nice sound to it", she commented, sitting down on the edge of his workbench.

Garrett just chuckled softly and heated a fire in the forge. Erin had picked up her broken necklace from the workbench, running her fingers along the remaining turquoises.

"I guessed that you had made my ring from my necklace", she said. "You know, I regretted leaving it behind."

"I can replace the broken clasp", Garrett came back. "We'll just need to find some necklace that matches the style and material. Shouldn't be too hard. We have an entire City to choose from."

They exchanged a sly grin. Heists were going to be fun again, he knew it.

Garrett picked up a side cutter and Erin handed him the necklace so he could carefully sever the links that connected the broken gemstone with the rest. The silver links would offer enough material for him to forge a ring. When he was done with the rough shape, he used the remaining shard of the gemstone to file it into an oval cabochon, using fine sandpaper to get the surface smooth. Erin watched him as Garrett took a small hammer and evened out the shape of the ring.

"I'm very sorry about your paintings", Garrett said quietly after a while.

Erin's head jerked up, and she looked like she wanted to ask him how he could know, but then she seemed to answer that question herself. She turned her head away and sighed. "I haven't burnt them all. I wanted to, and burnt a few of them, but then it made me so sad that I just had to keep the others. They are with my supplies, hidden in an old storehouse."

Garrett raised his eyebrows. So she truly had never really given him up… "That's nice to know."

"I can make new ones."

"Please do."

Garrett continued his work, with Erin watching him.

"Where did you sleep after you left your mill?", Garrett asked suddenly. The days as well as the nights had been really cold as of lately now that winter was coming, and even with his fire basket he had need of multiple blankets to keep himself warm.

"There's a factory pipe going through the abandoned storehouse I stashed by things in. It's filled either with hot exhaust or boiling water, I don't really now, but it's quite warm. I slept in a bedroll underneath it." She took another sip of cider, staring into her cup. "But I guess I'm going to move back into my mill. It'll take some time to rebuild the traps, but it's much more comfortable than a dusty attic."

Garrett nodded, keeping his eyes on the ring, placing careful strokes with his hammer to even out the surface. He made sure the ring was as flat and simple as possible, so it would not hinder the movements of his fingers when he wore it.

Reluctantly, Garrett spoke again. "If you want to, you can move in my clocktower. Just until your mill is ready to move into again, I mean."

Erin blinked, leaned back and squinted at him suspiciously. "The Master Thief himself invites somebody to share his secluded little hideout? Are you sure about that, Garrett?"

"As I said, just temporarily. I don't want you to catch another cold. Was a hell of an effort to get you healthy again the last time."

Erin's mouth curled into a touched little smile. "I'd love to. Thanks, widowbird." She leaned over and Garrett held still so she could press a soft kiss on his lips before he continued his work. Soon, he was satisfied with the shape of his ring and carefully fastened the turquoise in the middle. When he was done, he grabbed a thin hallmark and carved the engraving into the inside of the ring. Then he handed it over to Erin.

" _My Widowbird_ ", she read quietly. "It's beautiful." She signaled him to offer her his left hand, and when he did so she carefully put the ring on his finger. It fit perfectly, he found, and when he moved his digits he barely felt it.

"The stone almost has the same color as your right eye", Erin commented. "Looks good on you." Garrett just smiled, took her hands in his and leaned over to kiss her deeply.

It was long past midnight when Garrett decided that he should catch some more sleep, still feeling a little shaky from his previous escapade. Erin, who had been busying herself with cleaning the bloodstains from his armor and tidying up his cluttered kitchen corner, watched him as he undressed except for his smallclothes and slipped under the blanket. She went over to the bed, undressed as well and crawled in next to him, wearing only a long shirt.

"Tired already?", Garrett asked when Erin reached over and doused the candle on his nightstand with her fingertips.

"A little. Move over, will you?"

Garrett grinned and allowed her to snuggle up against him. When her warm body pressed against his he was again reminded of how desperately he had missed her company. The night was cold, the fire basket was burnt down and reduced to softly glowing embers, but under the blanket her heat drove away the chill. Garrett wrapped her in his arms, staring into her deep blue eyes and pressed his forehead against hers, until she tilted her head and kissed him.

When Garrett's tongue curled against hers and he tasted her saliva, sweet and heady, something inside him caught fire. His fatigue faded away and was replaced by a deep, ravenous hunger. He whispered her name, inclined his head and started nibbling her ear, which made Erin snicker softly. Inhaling the wonderful scent of her hair, he made his way down to her neck, licking the sweat from her skin. While he did so, his hands automatically gathered the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head, doing the same with his own shirt a heartbeat later. Garrett let his tongue wander over her slender clavicles, bathing in the scent of her skin, cupping her breasts in his hands, and further down still until he could rub his face against the softness of her chest.

"Widowbird, I thought you were trying to sleep…?", Erin commented mischievously, but when Garrett started to swirl his tongue over her nipple her voice trembled and her words turned into a soft moan. Yes, he needed sleep, but right now every muscle in his body longed for a different kind of hunger to be satisfied. Almost greedily, he sucked on her hardening nipple, caressing the other breast with his nimble fingers. While he did so, he placed his own body over hers.

He had not known he carried such an eager craving inside him. When Garrett allowed his tongue to travel down further, mesmerized by the lines of her muscles on her belly and her pronounced hipbones, he couldn't keep himself from biting into her skin firmly enough to make her moan again, his hands clutching to her thighs and hips. He pushed himself further down, relishing every single inch of her skin, soon breathing against the insides of her thighs, feeling goosebumps rise on her skin.

"Garrett, what are you up to?", Erin whispered, hint of uncertainty in her voice, but also breathing harder already. Garrett didn't respond. His vision was blurred and hazy and he just pushed his nose into the small triangle of curly black fuzz between her thighs and inhaled.

"No, Garrett, what…?", Erin breathed, placing one hand on his crown to stop him. "Don't…"

Her protest was replaced by a long, drawn-out moan. Garrett had used one hand to gently part her lips and slipped his tongue between the warm folds of her womanhood to run it across that sweet spot. Gasping for breath, Erin arched her back and he felt the grip of her fingers in his hair, but this time her hand kept his head in place. Garrett inhaled her intoxicating scent while his tongue delved deep inside her, savoring the taste of her desire as he shivered with pleasure. He closed his lips around the center of her heat and sucked it gently before he ran his warm tongue over it again, drawing circles. Erin trembled and moaned and rolled her hips against him as Garrett licked up her wetness, and then he slid a finger inside her, moving it as nimbly as if he was picking a lock. This additional stimulation made her moan loudly, and encouraged by that Garrett added another finger.

Moments later Erin reached her climax and cried out his name, trembling and digging her fingers into his hair, and Garrett greedily licked up every single drop of it, thirsty for her desire, the taste driving his own arousal to a point on which it became almost painful.

Her shivering slowly subsided, and Garrett rose from his place between her thighs, his chin dripping with his own saliva and the juices of her orgasm. Keeping his eyes locked on hers, he crawled over her body until his head was on one level with hers again. He pressed his hips against hers, letting her feel the tense bulge in his pants. Erin kissed him fervently and he felt her hands push down the waistband of his pants and he quickly kicked them aside.

"Garrett…", she breathed, barely audible, and he entered her eagerly, letting out a deep, raucous moan as he felt her wet, warm insides around his manhood. His arousal had reached a level that made every muscle in his body scream for release. He sped up his rhythm as Erin wrapped him in her legs and kissed him again, and he felt her fingernails dig into the skin of his backside. Muttering a curse under his breath, Garrett moved inside her, getting closer to his breaking point with every thrust. Letting his hands roam over her sweating, pale skin, savoring the taste of her lips against his, he gave in to his hunger, to his craving. His husky groans mixed with Erin's quick breathing as he licked and kissed and bit her, consumed all of her, devoured her entirely.

"Erin…", Garrett moaned huskily before he reached his climax. His own orgasm almost took his breath away as he felt her wind and tremble under him as she came again, scratching his back. He completely melted into her, throaty moans escaping his chest.

When Garrett had spent his seed inside her, he collapsed on her body, both of them drained and gasping for breath.

After a while, he rolled to his side and Erin immediately followed. She tucked her head under his chin, nuzzling his neck. Garrett blinked, trying to clear his still hazy vision, his heart racing in his chest, before he returned her embrace and pulled her close, pressing a kiss on her crown. He brushed her short, messy hair from her damp forehead with one hand. Erin glanced up at him, eyes drowsy and a smarmy grin on her face, raising one eyebrow.

"Dammit, Garrett… What was that about, huh? Did you want to prove something?"

Garrett just let out a deep, soft chuckle, a wide smile on his lips. "I don't know. Did it work?"

"Certainly." Erin leaned in to kiss him, and Garrett closed his eyes with enjoyment as he returned the kiss.

"Did you miss your stupid old taffer?", he asked quietly.

Erin just nodded. Even though they were sleepy, her eyes burned with blue fire.

"Missed you too", Garrett purred, which made her throw him a gentle smile that chased a warm rush through his heart. She rolled over to the nightstand and produced the bag of Lady's mantle, picking out a pill. Then she draped a woolen blanket over both of them and pressed her back to his side so that he was spooning her. Garrett nestled against Erin and cast an arm over her shoulder, grabbing her hand to gently knead it. The warmth she was radiating added to the utter relaxation he felt. He had needed this desperately, he found as all leftover tension slowly drained from his body. He kissed the back of her neck.

"You should go see Basso. He'll be glad to see that you made it", she murmured.

"Tomorrow", Garrett agreed sleepily. Before he drifted off, he entwined his fingers with hers. He thoughtfully regarded the view of his long, slender hand paired with her delicate one, how their sinews played when he moved them, with the matching rings on both their hands, the silver and turquoises shining softly in the moonlight.

Garrett found that it was an incredibly beautiful sight.

* * *

When Basso suddenly heard somebody fumbling on the lock of his window, he flinched so hard that he almost knocked over an inkwell. He spun around and couldn't believe his eyes when he glimpsed a familiar shadow behind the dirty glass on the street. The window swung open, letting dusty sunlight in, and Garrett gracefully climbed through.

Basso cursed wildly.

"Shit, Garrett, you got some nerves! First you head away for that suicide mission and then poor old Basso here stands and watches as Auldale Tower turns into a bonfire! You could see the smoke from here, dammit! And now you have the atrocity to swagger into my office just like that as if nothing happened!", he ranted.

When he was done, Basso just stared at the Master Thief, angry, but also utterly relieved. Given the terrible condition Garrett had been in when he left, Basso had feared he might not return. He had been almost as worried for his friend than back then when he suddenly had disappeared for almost a year. Basso shook his head and couldn't keep from showing him a wide smile, even though he tried his best to look pissed. He was more than happy that Garrett had returned.

"I swear I'm gonna do ya in myself if you come up with a lame excuse of sudden amnesia or some bullshit again, ya hear me?"

Garrett didn't answer. He just shot him a vague smile, walked over to his cluttered desk and sat down on the edge.

Basso crossed his arms and eyed him, his glare mixed with anger and joy equally. As if it was trying to support its master's point, the little jackdaw named Corvo made a loud noise and flapped its wings. "Will you speak already, please? What in the Trickster's name happened?"

"The Thief Taker is dead", Garrett said finally. Basso blinked, taken aback.

"Rork's teeth… So the rumors I heard were true, huh? Your work?"

"No, but I tried. The crown in the Tower was a fake, just like you suspected. The Museum must hold the original. The General just had the word spread that it was the other way around", Garrett said. "You were right."

Basso shook his head and snorted. "Told you so. And what about the General?"

"He almost got me. I was in a pretty bad state", Garrett admitted reluctantly, avoiding his gaze. "But…"

"Dammit Garrett, spit it out already!"

"Erin came and killed the General before he could finish me. I was injured and she took me back to the clocktower, took care of my wounds. She saved my life."

Basso sighed with relief. "So the girl made it, huh? I'm glad to hear that. Erin came here and asked for you shortly after you left, you know? Garrett, she was mad with worry for you! Despite all the shit you two have been through she can't let go of you. Loyal till the end!"

"No", Garrett said quietly. "Loyal as a raven."

" _What_?" Basso didn't understand a word. Something about Garrett was different, he felt, but he couldn't really tell what.

"We've talked about all this, about us, Erin and I", he continued. "Should have done that much earlier. I'm not very good at this."

"That's the understatement of the century, Garrett. And? Have you two sorted it out?"

Garrett didn't answer. He just started to slowly undo the laces of his left gauntlet, a very strange expression on his face that was so close to a coy smile that it made Basso wonder whether Garrett was drunk. He watched bewildered how Garrett took off the gauntlet, turned his hand around and showed it to Basso.

When Basso saw the ring he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Shit, Garrett... Is that an engagement ring?"

Garrett smiled his lopsided, sly smile. "Kind of."

Basso blinked, completely overwhelmed. Then he felt an incredulous grin stretching his mouth which was somewhat mirrored in Garrett's face as Basso shook his head again and the Thief countered that with an enthusiastic nod. He just made a quick step forward to Garrett and shortly wrapped the slender man in a bear hug. He felt Garrett tense and awkwardly pat his shoulder with one hand. Still, the Thief chuckled softly. "'s alright, Basso, no need to get emotional."

Basso withdrew from him, a wide grin on his face.

"You crazy bastard, you! The Master Thief is getting married, how do you like that!" Basso's expression interchanged between a happy smirk and an unbelieving stare rapidly. "Shit, are you kidding me? Getting married was the biggest mistake I ever made in my entire life!"

"Funny, because I recall that it was you who constantly insisted on me staying with Erin."

"Yeah, but... Oh, Garrett, miracles do happen, don't they? Are you out of your mind?!", Basso rambled, grinning so widely that his cheeks started to hurt.

"It's not supposed to be a wedding, don't worry", Garrett explained, which didn't help Basso's state of confusion at all.

"Not?"

Garrett hesitated, looking at the ring on his hand. "We both decided that we will never separate again. Every time we did, it almost got us killed, one way or another. Looks like you were right. We can't take this back and forth anymore, it almost destroyed both of us. Erin and I belong together."

Garrett looked up and met Basso's stare. "I love her."

"Guess what, you big oaf, I know! I've always known!" The fence laughed and shook his head again. "You got some nerves, Garrett... And what about the ring then? Looks very wedding-ish to me."

Garrett seemed to be struggling for words, but when he spoke again, a lopsided smile danced over his features. "I offered Erin a promise. People like us are not made for normal partnerships. We are independent. Thieves are better off when they are alone, but Erin and me, we are meant to be alone together. We found that out the hard way, but now we've both made a decision."

Basso nodded slowly. He recalled the events of the last years, especially of the last months. Erin had matured greatly and had become a strong, confident woman, and even though she still had her own rebellious edge to her, she got along more than well with both Basso and Garrett. Erin and Garrett were good for each other and he could well imagine them being a couple, even if in their case it meant something very unconventional that decent citizens would not call a proper partnership. A gang of Thieves, more likely. "So, it's more a symbolic kind of thing for you two?"

"Yes, kind of."

"So… Let me guess, it's going to be just like earlier, before you two split up for the umpteenth time: You both keep going on heists, sometimes alone and sometimes as a team, and every now and then you meet for other fun stuff besides stealing, is that it?", he asked.

Garrett just smiled his sly smiled and snorted. "Essentially. Plus the promise to keep it that way, no matter what."

"Well, then… Congratulations, I guess!", Basso exclaimed and slapped his shoulder again, still somewhat puzzled, but genuinely happy for his friend. Garrett hid his feelings behind his usual stern facade, but Basso could tell by the way his mismatched eyes shone that underneath, he was brimming with bliss. He winked at Garrett. "Is there going to be a ceremony or something, to make it official?"

"That's what I came here for, actually…", Garrett said reluctantly. "I wanted to ask the Queen on Beggars for that. Just the two of us, no guest list. Would you be our best man?"

Basso squeezed his lips to a tight line and tried to compose himself. He made it to nod casually without looking too emotional. At least he hoped so.

Garrett smiled in an unnerving knowingly way. "Thanks, Basso."

"Rork's teats, Garrett… You keep surprising me, crazy taffer. Let's celebrate this with a glass of wine, shall we? Have a seat, you're in for a treat on the house! Getting married, I can't believe it…"

"It's _not_ a marriage!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure…" Chuckling, Basso grabbed a candlestick and hurried into the murky, overstuffed storage room behind his office to fetch two glasses and a bottle. "Sweet wine or dry wine?"

"Sweet wine."

* * *

"What am I supposed to wear?", Erin asked Garrett, leaning against his workbench while she trimmed the fletching of an arrow. "I mean, I do have a white dress..."

Garrett, who had been carefully mixing the ingredients for an explosive arrowhead that he had bought from a Merchant in a mortar, looked up and shot her a sidelong glance.

"Do you associate anything positive with that dress?", he asked back.

"Not really."

"Then just go like you are. That's what it's about, isn't it? Just us."

Erin smiled warmly and winked at him. "Well said." She clipped the last of the feathers she had attached to the arrow shaft to match the length of the others and showed the finished arrow to Garrett. "Symmetrical?"

Garrett craned his head a little. He squinted at the arrow for a while before he nodded his assent and she placed it in a quiver, grabbing another one.

Three days had passed since Garrett had tried to lift the fake crown from Auldale Tower, and thanks to Erin's care he had recovered quickly from his dance with the deceased General. He had slept most of the time. When he wasn't sleeping, he had repaired the damages to his gear and washed away the dried blood, which was luckily not visible on black. Often Garrett had sat on the railing under the clockwork to drink tea with Erin, enjoying her presence, giving his strained body and mind the opportunity to rest. It was balm for his pained soul, and Garrett felt his strength returning to him, physically as well as mentally.

This evening, Erin and Garrett had decided they wanted to go visit the Queen of Beggars for what Basso still assumed was a wedding. It had been a cold, foggy autumn's day, but now the rays of the evening sun broke through the clouds, coating the frostbitten City in a silvery, soft light that made the mist emerging from the icy river glow. Garrett warily watched his own inside while he busied himself with making new arrows for future heists. Part of him had the feeling that he should be excited or nervous, but since he didn't really know what would await them at the Old Chapel, there was technically nothing to be nervous about. One never knew what to expect from the Queen anyway, but his instincts told him she would understand what Erin and him were going for. Still, the sheer _strangeness_ of the situation he was to put himself into made his stomach flutter.

As if Erin had read his mind, she asked: "Getting cold feet?"

Garrett huffed softly and looked up. "A bit. You?"

Erin fletched another arrow. "Not at all." The way her eyes shone betrayed her casual demeanor. Garrett knew exactly how excited she was, and that she knew exactly how utterly different the decision they had made was from anything Garrett was used to, but the soft, knowing smile she shot him helped greatly to calm him. He was very thankful for her quiet understanding.

"How do you know I'm not going to run away at the last second?", he wanted to know. It was meant jokingly and seriously equally. "I taught you to never trust anybody, especially not me."

Erin looked up from the arrow. "And you know that even if I tried my best to be a good apprentice, there are some lessons I'll never learn. I trust you completely, Garrett. You are the only one I trust in this life, to be precise."

Her words meant the world to Garrett, but instead of answering he just reached over and took her hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze. The look he gave her was enough for her to tell the feeling was mutual, he knew. She answered his thankful gaze with a lopsided smirk before she turned her attention to the fletching again.

Knowing that Erin was back with him, not only safe and happy, but also having cleared the obstacles between them by confessing his love to her, Garrett finally felt a great weight being lifted from his heart. His motivation to fully devote himself to Thievery was back in full blow, and immediately after his recovery he had eagerly started to fill up his stock of arrows, attached a fresh rope to his claw and a new string to his bow, gathering sketches of challenging noble mansions, comparing maps with newspaper articles and making plans of where to strike first. Garrett couldn't wait to dedicate himself fully to the silent art again, looked forward to happily loot some merchant's attic or the Watch's strongroom, be it alone or be it together with his partner. His raven. Quietly enjoying the satisfying view of another perfect explosive arrow lying finished on his workbench, he glanced over at Erin, and even though he could hardly express how much it meant to him that she was back, he hoped with all his heart that the promise they were about to give to each other would show her that he meant it.

"You ready to go?", she asked, putting her last arrow aside.

Garrett nodded and filled the substance from the mortar into three empty casings that were later supposed to form the heads of explosive arrows. He closed them up carefully and sealed the lids. Erin waited for him on the window ledge, and together they made their way down the Clocktower to the Plaza, crossing Stonemarket to reach the Old Chapel while the sun went down.

 _This would be a good opportunity to ask myself whether I'm doing the right thing._

Garrett knitted his brow while he was skipping nimbly over the frosty rooftops behind Erin. She was wearing warmer garments than usually according to the time of the year, soft wool and leather, but all of it still tight-fitting, functional and black as midnight. The Thief was clad in his full attire, including bow, blackjack and claw, his cloak flapping behind him in the cold wind like a banner. He wanted to feel complete.

 _Strangely enough, I have not the slightest bit of doubt. Educated guess: That's a good sign._

It would take him some time to get used to the thought of having something like a wife, a permanent partner, Garrett mused as they slowed down their pace as soon as they reached the gloomy graveyard. Essentially, nothing would change. Just the promise, and the ring on his finger, and the knowledge that Erin would be around, no matter what. Even though some parts of this seemed a bit unsettling to Garrett, the profound assurance their promise would give them like an invisible band connecting them wherever they were brought peace to his heart.

The Old Chapel was lit with candles and glowed warmly against the cold grey and blue tones of the graveyard, the scent of smoke and hearth fires wafting over from the City. The background was droning with the omnipresent noises from the City around them, the cawing of the swarms of crows in the dead trees and their soft footsteps on the gravel, but despite that, the world felt incredibly silent and peaceful.

"Do you still want to do this?", Erin's voice next to Garrett asked quietly.

Garrett blinked and took a deep breath. He threw her a sidelong glance, taking in her expression carefully, and behind her serious gaze he could see not only her steely dedication, but also deep understanding of how much emotional effort this was for Garrett. He took her hand in his and gave it a thankful squeeze.

"Yes."

It was the utter truth. Erin's sincere smile that followed his answer made his heart beat faster. They continued their way through the battered portal of the Old Chapel, the wooden doors long rotten, the stones overgrown with moss and lichen. The strangely familiar statues of men holding keys loomed above them, and the crunching of gravel under their feet turned into soft steps on old stones echoing around them.

At the back of the warmly lit Chapel, Garrett spotted a flock of beggars surrounding their Queen. When they noticed the two Thieves entering, they merged into the shadows and disappeared, all but one.

A young, dirty woman clad in rags quickly and shyly approached Erin, holding something in her hands. As she came closer they could see it was a wreath made of the white glowing poppies that still grew here and there all over the City, leftovers from the shifting of the Primal. The beggar lifted her hands over Erin, pushed down the black scarf she had wrapped around her head and carefully placed the wreath on her crown before she skittered away hurriedly.

Erin, apparently just as taken aback as Garrett by the unexpected gesture, lifted one hand to touch the softly glowing flowers on her head, but she didn't take them off.

"Should I… should I keep it on?", she asked, turning to Garrett. "I look ridiculous, don't I?"

Garrett just let his eyes wander over her, a genuine smile on his lips. She had never looked more breathtaking than now. "You look incredibly beautiful." He offered her his arm.

When they reached the back of the Chapel, Basso was already waiting for them, standing next to the Queen of Beggars surrounded by a mass of candles.

"Shit, Garrett, you really were serious about this, huh?", he roared grinning as he saw his friend approaching. He spread his arms and gave him a hearty slap on the back, which made Garrett snort out a soft laugh.

"It's not done yet."

"Yeah, you still got some time to bolt and save your own neck. Sorry, Erin, no offence. You look lovely, girl. But hey, seriously, if you are willing to take this crazy taffer here…", Basso said, jabbing a thumb in Garrett's direction. "… as your partner, you two must truly be birds of a feather. Or completely crazy."

"A bit of both, I guess. Thanks, Basso", Erin answered, shooting him a smug grin and tightening her grip on Garrett's arm a little.

Basso went past them, shortly touching Garrett's shoulder as he passed by. Very quietly, so that only the Thief could hear him, he mouthed: "You really want to wed her?"

"For the last time: More than anything", Garrett mouthed back, smiling vaguely.

"I'm proud of you, buddy." Basso shot him a grin and turned his head away almost quick enough to hide his glistening eyes before he positioned himself behind the couple.

Garrett, thankful for Basso's presence since his old friend gave him the reassuring feeling of having somebody very familiar standing behind his back, finally turned his attention to the Queen of Beggars.

The old crone seemed like she was deeply lost in thought, her mind elsewhere and not in the withered body of an old lady in furs and rags, and still she radiated a majesty that many nobles couldn't even dream to achieve, giving her an aura of omniscience. Her blind, milky eyes lit up when she heard the couple step closer, and she gestured them to stand in front of her next to each other. Basso kept standing behind Garrett and Erin as the Queen of Beggars started speaking.

"Garrett and Erin, my dear children… Just like me, you both have the City in your bones and soul, deeply rooted in your very essence. The City has shown you the cruelty of the world, taught you the secrets of the dark art, and one of you passed it on to the other. The City has seen great change over time while its very spirit always remained the same, and so have you."

She suddenly held a ribbon of soft velvet in her old hands, black as night. "Take each other's hands", she ordered gently, and Garrett and Erin did as she asked. Slowly and carefully, the Queen of Beggars wrapped the black ribbon around their wrists and hands, over and over again until they were bound together. While she did so, she spoke again.

"A shrike turned into a kestrel, and the greater folly of anger and hostility turned into balanced strength. A widowbird, strong and lonely, turned into a raven, restlessness into peace of mind. The City has seen great sorrow, as have you, but you made it to prevent the catastrophe, so it can live on with you in it. Nobody will ever thank you for this, since you are both children of the shadows, unseen, unsung. The City needs its Master Thieves, even if it doesn't know. You both wander a path few would want to follow, but still you do, and you do it with grace and pride. You helped the City, as you helped each other.

Garrett, you made it to restore peace in the City, and saved Erin from the Primal. Will you keep her by your side?"

"Always", Garrett whispered, his gaze locked firmly on Erin's, her eyes shining from the glowing poppy on her head.

"Erin, you came back from the darkness behind the Primal, and helped Garrett to restore peace in his heart. Will you keep him by your side?"

"Always", Erin said softly.

The Queen smiled her knowing smile and let go of their hands, the ribbon now tied all around them, connected with a bond of midnight.

Garrett slowly inclined his head and saw that Erin closed her eyes before he did the same, and then his lips touched hers.

The kiss they exchanged felt different from anything Garrett had ever experienced, and be it only because people were watching them as they kissed, or because he could clearly hear Basso noisily blow his nose somewhere behind them. It didn't matter, since Garrett's entire body glowed from inside with heat and excitement and something so unexplainably strange and honest that it threatened to overwhelm him, and he could sense that Erin felt just the same.

The Queen spoke again.

"For as long as you live, the balance will prevail. Your very fate is connected with the City you walk in, steal in, live in, as long as these two ravens here fly together high above it.

Go in peace, my children of the shadows."

Garrett leaned in once more to kiss Erin, and before he did he whispered next to her ear, just quietly enough for her to hear it: "Thanks for coming back to me, my kestrel."

"Somebody's got to take care of you, widowbird", she came back just as quiet before she returned his kiss.

The Queen of Beggars carefully undid the black ribbon around their hands. When they were unbound again, they turned around to Basso.

"Shit, I think these damn candles and the dust are bad for my eyes…", the fence muttered as he unsuccessfully tried to hide some very obvious tears. Erin snickered and Garrett just shook his head, a soft smile on his lips.

"Congratulations, you two pigheads. C'mere, girl", Basso muttered sniffing and wrapped Erin in a bear hug. Then he turned to Garrett, spreading his arms in front of him and cocking his head as if he was waiting for permission. The current situation was somewhat special for Garrett, and since he already had crossed quite some boundaries of his already very narrow comfort zone this evening he decided that one more didn't really matter. Garrett approached Basso and allowed him to wrap him in an embrace, feeling a lopsided smirk tugging at his lips. Seeing how delighted Basso was for them warmed his heart, even if it was also because the fence knew he would keep his two best Thieves working for him for much longer now.

As if Basso had read his mind, he said: "Shit Garrett, I have a hunch that business is going to be better than ever with you two finally joining forces. You're gonna make good ol' Basso here rich, will you?"

"Until the end of days. Or until your jackdaw takes over your business." Garrett slapped his back and withdrew from him. "Thank you."

Basso huffed and waved his words aside, wiping his eyes another time. "And now off you go. And don't forget to stop by soon, will ya? I have a job on some posh noble's blue diamond collection, a mission on an antique jade seahorse statue, there's a black pearl necklace I've heard of…"

"Soon, Basso. Can't wait", Garrett came back, and he meant it.

Erin and Garrett turned away from them while Basso went over to the Queen of Beggars, and together they left the Old Chapel again. Garrett looked back once more before they passed the crumbled gate into the dark graveyard, and saw that Basso and the Queen had resumed their game of chess.

"You coming, Garrett?"

Smiling, Garrett turned away from the candlelight in the Chapel and strode out into the fresh, clear air of the night, catching up to Erin who was waiting for him outside. As they went on their way to the clocktower, he exchanged an occasional glance with her and wondered whether she felt the same as he did. Garrett found that on the one hand he did feel different after their symbolic wedding, but in a good way. In a way that reassured him that things were at balance again, his heart at peace, and his dedication to Thievery would fill most of his life again. On the other hand, there was Erin, filling another part. His sort-of wife, his raven, always connected to him even if she was not there. The love he bore to his occupation, his one true passion, was not rivaled by his love to Erin, Garrett found. It was _added_ to it, giving him something he never had before.

 _On this occasion, Basso would make a corny joke about a stolen heart or the most precious treasure of my collection or something of that nature. Luckily he really likes chess and stayed with the Queen._

Still, Garrett could barely contain his excitement until they finally reached the clocktower where Erin immediately threw herself into his arms. Garrett dug his fingers into her short hair and cradled the back of her head, pressing his lips on hers. She returned the kiss, and they both swayed in the same spot for a while before their hands automatically reached for laces and belt buckles and soon after they struggled fervently to rid each other of their clothing, and a heartbeat later they fell breathless on the bed. The entire world shrank down to Garrett's hideout, the headquarter of the silent arts under the City's clockwork, while they celebrated their reunion, their promise, their newly restored balance, passionately feasting on each other's bodies, and before Garrett climaxed he managed to breathe another shuddering love confession into Erin's ear, causing her to respond in the same way.

* * *

"More wine?"

"Thanks."

Garrett poured Erin another glass and set the bottle aside on the table next to the bed. She drank a sip of the sweet, dark red wine and tucked her head under his chin again, pressing her naked body against his with a blissful sigh. Garrett lounged against some pillows, one arm outstretched and the other wrapped lazily yet possessively around Erin who nestled in the curve of his torso, her head on his chest. The night's cold autumn winds blew through the slits in the old stone walls and boarded up windows of the clocktower, but the soft woolen blankets they had piled on their exhausted bodies as well as their own heat drove away the chill. The fire basket Garrett had lit was barely necessary, but the soft crackling was comforting and the glowing embers created a smooth, orange light.

Garrett pressed another soft kiss on Erin's tousled hair before he took a swig of his own glass. After he didn't know how much time filled with quick breathing and glowing skin covered in sweat, a leaden satisfaction was slowly permeating his body, warming his stomach and mind just like the wine and her wonderful scent. Absentmindedly, he grabbed the bottle again and studied the date on the label.

"806? This wine must have been pretty costly", he observed.

Erin snickered dirtily. "Yup. Except that I didn't pay for it."

He peeked down at her with one eyebrow raised. "Where is it from?"

"That was complex. I visited a vintner over at Dayport, originally ordered to steal an antique bracelet for Basso, which as easy. Before I left again I read the account book the vintner had conveniently left on his table and you wouldn't believe how much that racketeer charges for a bottle of that age. The key to his wine cellar, though, was over at his assistant's house, who, if I can trust what I read in his diary that he left on his nightstand, is his lover, and thus he is entrusted to keeping his key which I could not find, but I also found out that his other secret lover, his cook, has a spare key as well. I picked that bottle because it was the most expensive."

Garrett chuckled softly while Erin smirked smugly. "Good job, though you probably started a relationship crisis."

"He betrays one lover with the other and is stupid enough to write about it in his diary. He deserved it", Erin sneered, taking another sip. Garrett huffed out a soft laugh and pressed her a little closer. He was proud of her. He had always been, he knew now.

"The wine is from my birth year", he observed suddenly. "At least, I guess so. It should be pretty close."

"You're not sure?"

"Never had anybody to tell me that it's my birthday."

"Awww. Poor old widowbird."

The mildly annoyed look Garrett shot her made her giggle. "Oh Garrett, you know it's almost the same with me. Now that you mention it, I'm not sure about my birth year too. I guess you're about nine years older than me."

Garrett took another sip of wine. He never really had thought about their age difference, and to be fair, he didn't care the slightest bit. It hardly mattered. "Which makes my vintage more expensive than yours."

She gave him a playful punch to the shoulder. "Didn't you mention that you also had something special for the occasion?"

Instead of an answer, Garrett set his glass aside and carefully withdrew his arm from under Erin. Still completely naked and fully aware of Erin's dirty smirk on his lean, muscular back, he padded over to where he kept his food and kitchen supplies and produced a box of almond cakes that he had picked up during a mission in some nobleman's mansion while a fancy banquet was taking place. He brought them over to the bed and slipped under the comfortable cocoon of blankets again, Erin's warmth sending a pleasant shiver down his spine. While they shared the cakes and wine, Erin suddenly asked:

"Have you thought about a location for our honeymoon?"

A chunk of cake halfway to his mouth, Garrett shot her a skeptical glance. "Seriously? You want to leave the City and go somewhere for a honeymoon? Not really our style, is it?"

"No, not really… I thought we could do something special and just pretend it was our honeymoon", Erin suggested.

"You mean, the same way we pretended our promise was something that normal people would call a wedding?", Garrett asked sarcastically. Erin huffed, gently nudged his shoulder again and picked another almond cake from the box, seemingly done with the matter. Still, her suggestion had made him think. The longer Garrett pondered about the idea of celebrating their reunion in a way that was adequate for a couple of Thieves, the more intriguing it seemed to him, and finally a vague plan formed in his mind. A very risky plan.

"You know... The crown in the Auldale Tower that was supposed to be the original was actually a fake", he said slowly, swirling the wine in his glass around. Erin lifted her head from his chest and looked at him.

"So?"

"Which means that the exhibit that is being shown in the Wieldstrom Museum, which is supposed to be the fake, is actually…" He broke off and glanced away from his wine at Erin.

"… is actually the original crown of Lord Laurence of House Black", she finished.

"If it is the original, it's beyond priceless", Garrett added.

"It must be kept under constant surveillance, and surrounded by the most complicated safety technology you could think of…", Erin mused.

"… and heavily guarded, day and night."

"It would be tantamount to insanity for somebody to break into the Museum to lift the crown", Erin remarked.

"I say it's perfect for us", Garrett decided. "How about a museum visit for our honeymoon?"

Erin propped herself up on her elbows to look at him intently, her eyes ablaze, mirrored in Garrett's own face as his Primal eye flared turquoise. Her beautiful lips curled into the snarky, adventurous smile he liked so much.

"Garrett, I already told you how much I love you, did I?"

Garrett's chest glowed while he tried to keep his face neutral. He made it only partly. "You mentioned it marginally."

She laughed, and leaned in to kiss him. Garrett couldn't help to keep himself from softly chuckling as well as he returned her kiss, tracing her cheeks with his fingers. Shortly after, she withdrew from him.

"When do we start?", she asked eagerly.

"Whenever you want, Erin. Tomorrow night?"

"Sounds good. But are you sure you're strong enough already? Need some more rest?" Her tone mixed mischief with genuine concern.

Garrett huffed and shot her a chiding glance. "I've rested long enough. Time to show this City that I'm back in business."

Erin smirked and ruffled his messy hair. "That's my widowbird. In that case, we have a lot to prepare beforehand."

"Then let's not waste any time, shall we? The crown has been waiting 800 years for us to lay our hands on it", Garrett rasped with a lopsided smile, emptied his wine in one go and jumped up from the bed, searching for his scattered clothing. Erin followed immediately and put on her undergarments when Garrett was already jogging up the staircase to his workshop, checking his bowstring and placing books on the history of Auldale and its architecture and City maps on his desk. He winced briefly when Erin gave him a slap on his backside as she went past him, still giggling with excitement, rummaging through his stash of arrows to help him. Garrett just snorted out a soft laugh, rolling his eyes, and turned back to his map, his gaze professionally scanning the Auldale district and the area around the Wieldstrom Museum to look for promising vantage points, possible entrances and guard posts. The preparations challenged all of Garrett's senses and attention and filled him with utter bliss.

 _What I desire lies in the light, and my freedom lies in the shadows, but if I've learned one thing, it's that what I wanted to be mine most has been lying in the deepest shadows right beside me all the time…_ , Garrett thought, reaching over to Erin to give her a gentle nudge while she checked their lockpicks, making her smile.

 _My kestrel._

While they prepared what would probably going to be the most complicated, complex, challenging and entertaining heist Garrett had done in a long while, he felt like a fire was burning inside him. He was looking forward to going on a mission with Erin again so badly, craving for the sound of locks opening under the surgical precision of his hands, for the glistening of jewels in the starlight, for seeing guards walking past them completely oblivious of their presence, for the euphoric thrill of stealing, the impulse that kept him alive. Erin would be by his side once more, and when Garrett carefully listened to his own thoughts, he found that he could not have made a better decision. The next evening they headed out to their special heist, running and leaping over the rooftops quiet as shadows and elegant as dancers while the nightfall was slowly covering the widespread labyrinth that formed the City in a blanket of darkness. They both were back in their element, the Master Thief and his shadow, detached from the shackles of mediocrity, circling above the net of laws of the Eternal City, their home.

While Garrett ran ahead closely followed by Erin, the familiar weight of his bow and quiver resting comfortably against his back under the cloak, his gaze went up to the sky that slowly faded from amber into blackness, and a rush of warmth filled his chest and made his lips curl into a lopsided smile when he spotted the pair of ravens, the two black birds still soaring high above the City's clocktower, alone together.


	13. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

The gravel of the graveyard crunched softly under Basso's boots as he slowly made his way to the Old Chapel. Here and there, funeral wreaths and flowers had been placed between the tombstones, and they glittered with frost whenever a passing cloud allowed the moon to briefly cast its silvery light on them. It had not snowed yet, since the marine climate of the City made for very wet, rainy winters that rarely went far below the freezing point, but still the nights were cold and a thin layer of ice covered the tiles of the roofs and the cobblestones. Basso shuddered in the breeze and tucked his cloak tighter around his neck.

A flapping noise next to him made him smile briefly, and a second later the jackdaw named Corvo landed on his shoulder.

"Did you deliver my message to Garrett, huh?", he asked, reaching into a pocket and offering the jackdaw a handful of corn that was met with great enthusiasm. The jackdaw cawed.

"Good bird. That fancy ceremonial sword I heard of is going to be a job he's really gonna enjoy. And if he should take Erin with him, they might be able to carry even more loot out of Count Sunderland's castle", Basso thought aloud while he passed the battered portal of the Chapel. A wave of warmth embraced him, making up for the musty smell of smoke, dust and blankets that hadn't been washed in ages.

The Queen of Beggars sat at her usual place at the back of the Chapel, surrounded by fire baskets and candles that bathed the old walls and ornate windows in soft orange light. Some beggars were around, lurking in the background or sleeping on bedrolls close to the fire. The Queen was smiling when she heard him approach.

"Welcome, dear Basso. Have a seat." A thin hand with long fingernails pointed to a dusty armchair.

"M'Lady", Basso came back, briefly tapping a finger on the edge of his hat before he sat down. He was offered a cup of tea and thankfully drank a sip. Leaning back comfortably, he let out a sigh.

"If I recall correctly, it was your turn, Basso", the Queen said softly, a sly smile playing around her wrinkled lips. A table with an unfinished game of chess was placed between the chaise longue the Queen was resting on and Basso's armchair.

Basso leaned over, rested his chin on his hand and studied the chessboard intently. He was playing the black side, and it didn't look good for him. He often won the games of chess he played with the Queen, but despite her blind eyes and part of her mind always being elsewhere as if she was constantly listening to voices only she could hear, she was a brilliant strategist and winning was never easy.

Basso finally decided to move the rook.

"Hah, counter that!", Basso snorted grinning. He leaned back and took out a small bag filled with dry biscuits, emptying it on the table next to the chessboard. "I almost forgot… For your rats."

"You are too kind, dear", the Queen said, unnervingly unfazed by his move. Without looking up from the board, she went on while her long fingers absentmindedly stroked the head of the disheveled fox fur she was wearing. "Tell me, Basso… How is our Master Thief?"

Basso felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. About a month had passed since Garrett and Erin had celebrated their own version of what decent citizens would call a wedding, and ever since then Basso had had a keen eye on his thieving friend, curious to see how he was coping with his new situation of having something like a wife. It was not easy to summarize, but Basso was sure that the Queen knew it even better than he did and only wanted to hear his opinion on the matter.

"Well… It not like Garrett's any chattier than usual when it comes to talking about his private life. Asking him nosy questions just makes him throw me that mocking smirk he's so good at. But I guess essentially, Garrett is just being Garrett. He has not changed much, I feel, and if so, then for the better. He is incredibly productive, which is good business for old Basso here." Basso chuckled and sipped at his tea.

"And Erin?", the Queen asked, moving her knight.

Basso frowned. _Damn her._ There went his strategy. He sighed, but then smiled again.

"She's been accepting a whole bunch of missions from me lately. The girl is doing more than fine, and as far as I know she's not accepted any assassination offers since her return, but apparently she loves to take missions involving the robbing of men that are known to treat women badly. Madam Xiao has told me as much, Erin's been seen around the House of Blossoms mugging a guy who had been kicked out because of rude behavior, and let me tell you, she did not handle him with kid gloves."

The Queen smiled. "My rats saw and told me. She is finding her own path, thanks to Garrett's help. And he is finding something too…"

Basso moved his king. "They have been to my office together too, every now and then. If you didn't know they were a couple, you wouldn't be able to tell. Of course Garrett tries really hard not to let it show, but I can see that they are completely hooked on each other. It's the way they exchange looks and occasionally touch each other's hands, even if they don't talk much. Sometimes it's like they are reading the other's thoughts instead of speaking. Garrett would never admit it openly again, but he loves her dearly."

Basso decided not to tell her about that one night in which the three of them had been discussing another heist in his office which led to a little squabble between Garrett and Erin. It had not been an argument, mainly an exchange of their usual sarcastic needling and rolled eyes, something that seemed to pass as their very own equivalent of playful flirting, but it had ended with Erin giving Garrett a hearty smack on his butt as she strode over to Basso's side of the desk. Basso had had to bite his own tongue so hard that it hurt to keep himself from bursting into laughter, concentrating desperately on the book before him while he tried to pretend that he hadn't seen anything. Still, the look on Garrett's face had been priceless. After they had been done with the planning, the two Thieves had left through the window, and when Basso had peered out on the street after them, unable to resist, and had had to bite back another fit of laughter when he saw Garrett chasing after Erin, obviously to take revenge, both of them grinning widely.

He leaned back again and cocked his head to the side while he waited for the Queen to make her move. "Now ya heard my opinion on this. Tell me… How do you think is it going to be? Are they meant to stay together after all those ups and downs, or will they be torn apart by some catastrophe again?"

The Queen of Beggars blinked a few times, her fingers letting go of the bishop she had been about to move, and stared up to the hazy dome of the Old Chapel as if she was able to see through the battered roof out into the night sky.

"These children of the City will have to face horrors darker than the shadows they move in, but this time, they will face them together. They will pass the trials and burdens the City places on them, sometimes with pain and blood, but there will be more happiness than they ever experience before, while they hone their skills and hide and steal. Garrett and Erin will always lend some part of their mind to the other even when they are alone. He will give her one of the paintings of his collection, the one with the falcon. They will meet to cut each other's hair. They will occasionally break into the other's hideout and leave small gifts behind while the other is sleeping. They will steal wine or cheese or other treats and share them, and care for each other's injuries. They will see the years passing, alone together. Every year on Samhain Eve, they will meet in the clocktower and dance the entire night high above the City, and when Erin tells Garrett that she loves him, he will know how to respond. Once a raven has found a mate, it remains by its side for as long as it lives."

Basso blinked and sighed quietly. Her way of talking could be so unnervingly vague and mystical, but he had to make do with what he got.

"I really hope you are right. I can see how good they are for each other and I hope it will remain like that, for all our sake."

The Queen of Beggars slowly narrowed her gaze until she looked at Basso again. Her milky old eyes shone with an eerie turquoise light strangely resembling the smoldering color of Garrett's right eye. One corner of her mouth twitched as she shot him a glance that was somewhere between chiding and a knowing, gentle smile as if she was to remind him that she always was right, one way or another.

Finally her thin, fragile hand pushed the bishop a few squares across.

"Checkmate, my dear Basso."

* * *

A/N: And there we are, the finale... I had a lot of fun writing this and I'm incredibly thankful for the support! I guess this will be it for now, but I won't exclude the possibility to write another installment for Garrett and Erin, one day in an uncertain future, since I love them a lot. For now, I'm going to take a break in writing on a longer project, but I'm probably going to add some short stories about Garrett and Erin here and there, taking place after "Kestrel and Widowbird". I really hope you enjoyed reading!


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